Sora meets Big Hero 6: The Series
by Iscreamer1
Summary: Sora returns to San Fransokyo to help Hiro and the rest of Big Hero 6 with their personal and crime-fighting problems. Also features characters from Dick Tracy and the Shadow. *currently on hold in light of the season 1 finale*
1. Sora Returns

_Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!_

Kent Allard was born to a wealthy heritage in the city of New York before his time in the War on Terrorism made him a sleeper agent for the United States government. His plane, a "lemon" as some would call it, had malfunctioned from a faulty engine and crash landed in the city of Shambalah, which was close to Tibet where he was found and taken under the tutelage of the Tulku. The Tulku was a holy man who had dabbled his uncontrollable lust into otherworldly powers to satisfy and bring balance to his personal needs and his people. When he had taken Allard in to his home; a magnificent temple with revolving floors and gadgetry, he had given him the chance to become a force for good, supplying him with a fortune in gold. When Allard asked why, the Tulku replied that he had heard tales of heroes from the like of Doctor Strange, Madame Webb and other mystical forces who used their powers for good. Some like Dormammu and the enchantress Amora used them for evil. Seeking to increase his wealth and spend some of his extra cash on charity, Allard underwent a seven-year period of training and conditioning under the Tulku. His new master threw everything at him: exorcising, grammar to expand his vocabulary, hypnosis, mind-reading, bending perceptions—all of which prove useful to his new identity…the Shadow.

Returning to New York with his extra fortune, he went to a dinner party at Rockefeller Center and was surprised to discover that the man he was sharing a table with was millionaire Lamont Cranston. Both men had the exact same handsome features, the same slick black hair, the same pale blue eyes, the same nose that was very round at the front, but not too round. They were even wearing the same tuxedo, a snow-white jacket with a coal black shirt, necktie, pants, socks, boots and a red rose lapel in the front pocket. After explaining their past lives, the two men came to a stipulation: that Allard use his identity to travel around the world and use his powers to purge his fellow men of their inner dark dimensions. Cranston, aware of his competitors that were going as far as to kill him out of pure jealousy, accepted the offer and received half of Allard's newfound wealth as payment for keeping his silence.

Now he was on the top floor of the Hyatt Regency in San Fransokyo, all the way on the other side of the country. He had been reminiscing on his career as the Shadow, which so far had lasted the same amount of time as his training, gathering enemies from the likes of Shiwan Khan and his granddaughter Batu, Grendel, Dr. Zorn, Monstradamus, Black Dragon, Crime Wizard, Stag, Voodoo Master, the Black Sparrow, the Clock, the Talon and his antithesis, the Light. The battles that he had faced against his enemies were long, hard and brutal as he had struggled to seek the darkness and purge them in the hope that they would redeem themselves into persons of good nature, in the process of attempting to purify the whole wide world.

Along with him was the beautiful Margo Lane, who was no more than thirty-one. Like him, he was traditionalist with curled golden hair, ocean blue eyes, cherry rouge lips, painted eyebrows, all of which made her appear straight out of 1939. It was in the presidential suite that she greeted him with a breakfast of bread and butter, while he noticed that there was nothing for her on her side of the table. No white plate, no toast and jam or anything less of a tulip glass of orange juice mixed with liquor.

"Morning!" she sang in a sweet princess-like voice.

Kent, feeling stunned by her surprise entrance, looked over his right shoulder at her standing by the doorway.

"M-morning," he stuttered, trying not give too much of himself away.

Margo seemed to know that Kent was the Shadow, but she kept the information hidden from him out of fear that it would cost their relationship. The very name of the Shadow seemed to have stuck with him as much as his own shadow, especially when he saw Margo wearing the darkest shade of aviator sunglasses covering her eyes.

"Aren't you going to eat?" he asked her.

"I am not hungry," she replied.

"Are you excited for this job?"

"Yes."

She nodded, smiling a genuine grin and her hands touched each other. Another reason for the pair to be in San Fransokyo was that Margo had applied for a job at the San Fransokyo Institute of Technology as a hall and field monitor, teacher of science, law and gadgetry as well as substitute teacher for Professor Robert Callaghan, who was currently serving death row on Alcatraz Island for a serious offence. To prepare, she brought her father's old school books with her, as traditionalists were not too keen on using the internet given its unbalanced sense of reliability. A math book, a science book and a book on court practices were all she needed. She was about to head out of the door when Kent said again.

"Are you on something?"

"Yes," Margo began to show her sassier side. "Coca-Cola and lemonade. I'll see you later."

And with that, she was out the door before Kent could even think about kissing her goodbye.

With a black beret, a matching dress imported from France that went up to her neckline and pitch black high-heel boots, Margo hastily made her way to SFIT. She crossed the street where a bus was waiting and onto the other side towards the front office. San Fransokyo in her honest opinion seemed new and exciting; away from the jungle of enormous art deco concrete that she had seen far too much of back home in New York. After signing in at the front desk and clocking in, she made her way around the campus, studying every detail and building that passed her as her feet, walking as though they had been activated by remote-control, carried her body past cliques and loners with one reason to be so. Some of the students were even physically disabled, with crotches, wheelchairs and harness that allowed some of the more wealthier victims to walk again.

One detail that intrigued her was the three-story pagoda roofed building with the words "Tadashi Hamada Memorial Hall" written in a Gill Sans font above the entrance. Margo couldn't have cared less, she tried not to look like a slut with the way her hips moved back and forth, catching the unneeded attention of several men…and closeted lesbians.

When she made her way to the assigned classroom, Classroom 3A, a small brown room with four rows of seats and connecting tables ascending down to the chalkboard, her first thoughts were:

 _There's absolutely no one here._

This gave her the opportunity to remove her silky, yet hot black top, revealing a practical cotton white shirt with long sleeves and five pearl buttons down the middle. Thinking she had extra time before her class began, Margo placed her handbag of personals in the office, hung her top and beret on the wooden coatrack by the door and went outside.

At the outdoor track, which was about 80 feet long in width and had two rows of seats on either side going up by twelve stories. Observing the details of the structure, she found a handful of students in practice, three boys did somersaults, some girls practiced cheers and flips, a male/female duo ran along the track and right by the bench closest to the left side of the track was a small fifteen-year-old with black wavy hair trying the laces on his left shoe with both hands. She was close to the same bench when the triptych of boys, attracted by the bright glow of her hair, came up behind her.

"Yo, didn't know we had a traditionalist for a teacher."

"How about you show us some moves," one with dirty blonde hair asked teasingly.

"Sorry, boys," Margo replied with a professional tone. "But I'm taken."

Understanding, the three went back to gymnastics. Over by the bench on the opposite side, she could hear the song "Cruel Summer" by Bananarama blasting from a boombox radio, belonging to a girl with pink glasses and 5'5 long blond hair. Ignoring the girl, she went over to the boy who had been tying his shoe laces. He was also dressed in a dark baseball cap, a white t-shirt with no number or insignia, grey shorts and a four-foot-long bat was sitting on its front on his right-hand side. Margo approached the child and asked.

"May I help you?"

"No need," the young man was still focused on his shoe laces.

Then he looked up at Margo, taking the details of her beauty with an interesting flair before he studied her entire body (private areas notwithstanding), looking up and down before composing himself.

"Sorry, I have just realized that you were too old for me."

Margo chuckled.

"Well, in spite of your brash approach," she offered her right hand to him. "I would like to introduce myself as Margo Lane, your new teacher."

"Hiro Hamada."

Hearing the surname rung a tiny bell in Margo's memory, a bell that was without a bead line, making it useless. But she pushed the thought aside and encouraged a smile.

"Okay, Hiro. What do you intend to learn here?"

"Robotics, science and…"

He grabbed the base of the bat with both hands.

"Sports?"

"Like baseball?"

"Yeah, my brother was a fan of the Ninjas."

Before Margo could ask about this mysterious brother, Hiro was off and about, running to the center of the field. Knowing that she had better matters at hand then observing her students, Margo decided for the best to have herself properly introduced in her first class of the day.

When she got back to the classroom, she opened the door and nearly jumped at the sight of a woman holding a file folder under her right arm who spoke sternly and clearly like a highly educated individual.

"Miss Lane, I see you have taken the time to slack off on your first day on the job."

The woman in question had brown hair with brown eyes, brown-red lips and corresponding eyebrows with chocolate milk skin. She was thin, but not too thin and if Whitney Houston had taken on a career of teaching instead of singing, this would be her. She also wore a black long-sleeve shirt that contrasted with Margo's white with a grey skirt held by a darker grey belt with a golden strap and sensible black slippers covering her toes. She was also decked out with a golden wrist watch on her left arm, round gold earrings on both ears and wore a 24-karat gold necklace that had the shape of an eagle. Her name? Professor Granville.

Professor Granville came from a long line of teachers, her mother was a teacher, her grandmother was a teacher, her great-grandmother was a teacher (She in fact was the first African-American woman to teach a diverse class in the days before California was completely controlled by Emperor Hirohito after the war). Her grandmother, having been on good terms with the hidden figures who helped to make the Space Race possible for the Americans with the help of her fellow Japanese technicians, saw to it that her lineage would help change the world for the better. Her mother in fact, taught her everything she needed to know about science until the day she died. This, along with her agenda to prevent her fellow colored persons from being viewed as hipsters who spoke nothing but jive, hardened her heart and she was determined to educate the students of her _alma mater_ (SFIT, of course) through strict discipline and commitment as her father of all people once advised her: "Remember…discipline, always discipline."

"I am sorry," Margo tried to get into her professional state. "But I was checking to make sure that the students were in perfect order on the playing field. No bullying, no horseplaying and nothing short of bringing a good judgement of character onto them."

Margo hoped that Granville would have least mustered a smile from her reply, but the pragmatic teacher, her eyes narrowed by two inches, kept her smile completely upside down.

"As your colleague, you will assist me when I need you the most and you will also serve as a substitute teacher should I be unavailable."

And she left to jot down Margo's tardiness with a black ball-point pen of death. The blonde woman, looking back at her, sighed in despair. This was going to be a rough job.

* * *

Hiro Hamada lived on the corner of Haight St and Masonic Avenue with his doting aunt and robot and their pet calico, Mochi.

Hiro used to live with his parents Tomeo, Maemi and seven years older brother Tadashi before their parents were fatally wounded in a truck collision caused by Pinkie the Stabber in the aftermath of an anniversary dinner and even though they had Tomeo's sister Cass to keep them company, Hiro felt empty inside, for his brother had foolishly thrown his life away to save his father-figure of a teacher, Professor Robert Callaghan, from a holocaust on the SFIT exhibition hall that Callaghan himself created using a bomb and a mixture of violent chemicals.

Tadashi's genetic coding, however, would live on in the creation of Baymax, a plushy healthcare robot who helped Hiro, and three visitors from another world, Sora, Donald Duck and Goofy Goof, discover that the fire Callaghan had created was nothing short of a ruse to steal Hiro's precious interchangeable microbots. Now under the alias of Lord Deathstrike (or Yokai as it was known to Hiro's friends who joined the fight against him), Callaghan had joined forces with the mobster Alphonse "Big Boy" Caprice and the criminal Sandman to steal the many parts that were necessary to create a portal in an act of revenge against trillionaire entrepreneur Alistair Krei for the death of his daughter in a scientific malfunction.

The friends of Hiro, consisting of Aiko "Honey Lemon" Miyazaki, Leiko "Go-Go Tomago" Tanaka, Damion "Wasabi" no-Ginger and Fred Lee, formed a superhero team created especially for the mission called Big Hero 6. With the help of Spider-Man and his amazing friends from S.H.I.E.L.D., they were able to solve the riddle behind Yokai's identity and defeat him, but were too late to prevent him from killing Krei and several of his employees in a climatic showdown at a new building he had recently opened.

As of the first anniversary of the day they became that superhero team, Hiro was in his room, waking up to the dawn of a second coming. The second coming as in a second day. He first placed his eyes on the brown framed portrait of Tadashi wearing a yellow shirt against a background of pink cherry blossoms. When he saw Tadashi smiling like that, he got the feeling that everything was all right in the world. The amazing feeling that he was whole and he had everything he had ever wanted in his whole life. It lasted for about five seconds before he remembered what happened and his emotions turned to solemn.

"Well o _nii-chan_ , a new day for a second year."

With careful steps, he walked to the bathroom, took a bath, got his teeth brushed, got his hair combed, got changed and everything was settled into his backpack before forgetting two of his good luck charms: his blue hoodie and Tadashi's San Fransokyo Ninjas baseball cap, which he always wore outside the campus.

"Hiro! Your friends are waiting!"

The sweet, sweet voice of his aunt brought another smile to his face as he made his way down the wooden staircase of photographs of himself and his extended family from Okinawa, the genesis of the Hamada and Takachiho families. He found Honey, Go-Go, Wasabi and Fred waiting for him at a round wooden table with four seats. It was a perfect image of Hiro's very first day at SFIT just one year ago.

On the table were four plates of pancakes stacked to the equal number of four. Hiro came behind Honey and Wasabi, who were sitting before Fred and Go-Go.

"Hey, Hiro!" Wasabi was the first to call out. "Come on! Let's not be late."

As they made their way to the door, his chestnut-haired aunt came from behind the young prodigy, holding in both hands a brown paper bag that seemed to be the average size of one's stomach from the outside.

"I made you a meatloaf sandwich," Cass told him, holding out the bag.

As soon as Hiro's right hand took it, his aunt pulled him into a tight hug.

"Tadashi would so proud of you on your second year," she whispered into his right ear.

Hiro couldn't care less of how insensitive it would sound by anyone else, he just squeezed his eyes shut and after a quartet of seconds passed, the two relatives released each other and Hiro turned counterclockwise to the family sitting at the round table by the door on the right: Detective Richard "Dick" Tracy, his wife Tess and their adoptive ginger-haired son, Junior.

"Good luck, out there!" Tracy called after him.

Hiro's right hand waved goodbye before they went off to catch the trolley. Dick turned back to Tess, her stomach having grown a large bump that seemed to be about thirty inches wide: she was six months pregnant. Junior was hoping for a baby brother, but it was believed by various reports from the doctors that it would be a girl. A girl that would bring equality into the Tracy household. Tracy on the other hand, had little work to do, thanks to the additional help of Big Hero 6 the previous year and he even invited them to Chief Brandon's retirement party a mere three months after the Yokai incident. Tess did not stop looking at the five young adults out of curiosity until the trolley was out of sight.

The party of five arrived at the front entrance of the San Fransokyo Institute of Technology thirty-eight minutes later. The thirty to forty-foot-tall white towers against the pagoda roofs met Hiro with a sight he had grown accustomed to since last August. The paintwork seemed to have been replenished with new coats of white to prevent the old color from turning into the color of cavities. A small group of students passed the team, treating them like normal folk instead of the heroes they were supposed to be, since they couldn't bother to tell anyone about it in order for Hiro and his comraderies to be treated like normal persons of the typical on-going society. Hiro had been staring up at the towers for about a minute when an impatient Honey Lemon placed her left hand on his right shoulder.

"Are you ready for the second day of the second year?"

Hiro looked up at Tadashi's girlfriend, his brown eyes taking in the green concealed by the lenses of her pink primed glasses. He also took a careful notice of the handbag she had bought last year after sacrificing her old one in the battle over the Krei Tech building.

"Indeed I am!" he exclaimed in a chipper mood. "I've been through last year, how hard can a sophomore be?"

"You're only fifteen years old," Go-Go seemed to add unemphatically.

"Everyone is wanting to get close to you because your brother is legend," added Fred with quick syllables.

"Not to mention the new dean is a stuck-up bitch," Wasabi muttered quietly. "And she's an Afro."

And before Hiro could make his own reply on the matter, Honey pushed him all the way to the front office and the other three followed.

Diet Smith and Vitamin Flintheart, two of the school's well-meaning teachers, were glad to see Hiro again and Vitamin even tipped his black fedora to Honey Lemon as she ushered Fred, Go-Go and Wasabi to follow her. Other teachers and students greeted them back as well in a mixed manner of positive and pejorative, if not begrudgingly.

Hiro knew well about the entire layout of the campus. After taking his photographed portrait for the sophomore identification card (an improvement over his freshman's card since it featured his head from the nose up, with a left eye shut from a reactional reflex of the photographer's flash), he got the blue string to hold it around his neck from a bin and set off for a second retour of the campus. There was the VR lab, where people with headsets could study into the research of bringing the technology beyond it's full potential. The Quad where students could just laze around in the sun or even throw disks of the electronic kind, which was also a favorite past time of Go-Go in order to get the aims on her disks straight. It could also be used to study bio-genic life, as one would place an x-ray screen against a tree and study it's inner workings. Then there was the cafeteria (or "Fooding Zone" as Fred preferred to call it) where if one were to get at least one bite from a hot dog with ketchup, mustard and relish, they would have to get it from a food bot with a red, portly body with thin grey arms, pincers for hands and could travel by a black zip line or would float. It was also occupied with a plethora of round white and orange vacuum robots that could clean a mess in no more than four seconds flat. While it seemed like Fred's favorite, it was the streamline moderne Ito Ishioka Robotics Lab that was the favorite of Hiro where his life at SFIT really began.

Inside the silver-grey hallway, Hiro came across the third door on his left. On it was the turquoise sign bearing the name "Tadashi Hamada" on the top of the left-hand side door. Hiro, knowing that Baymax would be waiting for him inside since yesterday, took a long look at that name and wondered why it had not been removed since he first settled here. Perhaps the school wanted to immortalize Tadashi in every way possible, perhaps it would have been a disgrace to remove that name, or perhaps they were just complacent to leave it where it was, knowing that Hiro was the current occupant of that lab.

As Hiro drew a sharp breath of air, Wasabi gave his right shoulder a comforting left hand.

"We miss Tadashi too, you know."

Hiro held back the negative emotions and turned to the quartet.

"I'll catch up with you guys later, I have to check on Baymax."

The others left to their respective classes: quantum physics for Honey and Go-Go, biology for Wasabi and history for Fred. Hiro then seized the opportunity and gathered the strength to have his right hand grip the door.

And no sooner had he pulled the door open…when who should appear, but Sora, Donald Duck and Goofy Goof!

"SURPRISE!" the three chorused alongside Baymax.

Hiro could see no party favors, but seeing the three who helped him with the case last year nearly brought tears into his eyes.

"Sora! Donald! Goofy! When did you get here?"

"Last night," Sora smiled, crossing his arms and resting his back against Baymax's squishy exterior. "I mean it has been a year, hasn't it?"

"It has…" Hiro deadpanned, astounded by the length of time that had passed.

"So we thought we could give you an anniversary party!" shouted Goofy.

"You mean an impromptu surprise party," Donald reminded with a wagging right index finger. "We didn't even bring the favors."

Hiro shook his head, setting down his backpack as he walked closer.

"It doesn't matter. All that matters is that you're here for some strange reason."

"They thought they could need your help again," was the cute voice of Baymax that said. "Helping others is a common specialty that Sora and I share."

Sora gave Baymax an adorable grin and kneeled down to Hiro's eye level.

"So how have you been holding up this past year?"

Hiro sighed at the beginning.

"Well, I still miss Tadashi, Aunt Cass is serving more food than ever. The guys are starting to love me more and I am teaching Baymax other things besides healthcare."

"He has taught me how to cook and clean as well as teaching younger children the art of karate," Baymax confessed.

"Right," Sora's grin went silly. "Anything school related?"

Hiro removed Tadashi's cap from his head onto the lantern of a shrine and turned his focus back to Sora.

"Now that you mention it, I am trying to think about a decent project for school. One is expanding my microbots for superhero duties, the other is building another Baymax. So that way, they'll be two."

"Two?"

Saying this caused Sora's eyebrows to rise.

"A test model of sorts," Hiro explained. "One can go perform practical services at the general hospital and the other can stay with me to do superhero work…not that there have been too many superpowered criminals recently. It will be a perfect replica…unless, of course, I would have to encode my DNA onto a microchip the same way Tadashi did or I could just copy his."

And before Hiro could start work on the perfect replica, Sora looked over his right shoulder at the woman belonging to the voice of…

"Mr. Hamada! If you want to live up to your brother's legacy, you should start by getting to your classes on time."

Hiro's head, followed by the rest of his body, turned clockwise at the woman. It was Professor Granville, who had ascended to the position of dean about a month ago after the previous applicant had…well, let's just say, died of a heart attack. She stood tall and firm, with her hands clasped behind her back in the faultless stance of a military general. Her face was stern and it was a face that Hiro had known long before she even became a dean in the first place. Even Tadashi knew her when she was still a teacher, and she had high hopes for the co-employee that everyone dreamed of being before his cold-dead carcass was deep fried in a hot expo hall on flambé.

Keeping a professional state of his own, Hiro grabbed his backpack and followed Professor Granville out the door, waving a quick goodbye to Sora, Baymax, Goofy and Donald with his right hand.

"I couldn't agree more. Punctuality is _very_ important."

Outside in the hallway, where no one else knew that they were there, Professor Granville, noticing that Hiro was still beside her for a split second, leaned her head ten inches away from colliding with his and spoke with the hidden emphasis of a harbinger of doom.

"Tick-tock, Mr. Hamada. You do not want to keep your thermodynamics teacher waiting. I hear she's tough, but fair."

Turning counterclockwise with her back to him, Professor Granville added a mutter.

"And a little too sweet for my taste."

Professor Granville walked five steps in the direction of the elevator before Hiro turned counterclockwise in the opposite direction and shot off like a jackrabbit to the thermodynamics class. He knew where it was. Classroom 3A was hidden by a brown door with a silver handle to push it and a light-lemon frame of glass. Hiro was nearly out of breath before he found his seat on the fourth row and saw his teacher: a younger looking woman with blonde hair, a white top and a jet black dress. Turning clockwise to face the new entry, Hiro recognized it as none other than the woman he met before on the playing field.

"Oh! Hello, Mr. Hamada. I'm sure you remember me from yesterday. I'm Margo Lane, the new teacher of law and thermodynamics…among other positions."

Her voice was sweet, placing her right hand on her heart as she introduced herself. Hiro would have expected someone of a greater threat, but she was just the polar opposite that he had in mind.

"Let's begin with Chapter 1."

Miss Lane had snapped Hiro out of his thoughts and the rest of the day went by, making Hiro feel like a microscopic being against the taller students and employees who worked there. He was in a happy, but confused mood when he told Sora and Baymax about it by sundown.

It was 7:00 at night when Fred invited Go-Go, Wasabi and Honey to his manor on 1000 California Street. With his parents away vacationing or on business trips for the umpteenth time, Fred had the house to himself along with his butler Heathcliff. Right now, he was crouched on his red plastic table held by a round grey crystal in his Fredzilla costume when Wasabi let his voice out.

"I didn't know a whole year had passed since we had done the whole Big Hero 6 thing."

"I know I did!" shouted Fred, before looking left and right. "Where's Hiro?"

"He had to do after-school business," Go-Go informed him, lounging from the white sofa in an almost emotionless position.

"But he's going to miss our anniversary!" Fred declared. "We have to do our night patrol! Has he forgotten already how cool it is being a superhero? That one year ago we sent a revenge-crazed villain and his cohorts up the river and had victory pancakes in the morning? That was awesome!"

"Awesome?" Wasabi's face was plastered with exasperation. "I remember it being scary! I nearly died from getting shot at."

"You didn't seem scared," Fred placed his hips to his fists.

"That's because I was pumped full of adrenaline," Wasabi explained under fearful pretenses. "Now I back to being a pantophobe with fears like heights, classes, strange things, even betrayal."

"And we almost let Hiro kill Callaghan and his cohorts," Honey added, disturbed by the memory. "A genius like him should have known that you have to have respect for human life, no matter how much they deserve it."

"So, he learned his lesson," Fred replied with no fear of the near-execution attempt. "But what if there is a super-villain out there—"

"FRED!" Go-Go stood up from in-between her friends sitting on the sofa to catch his attention. "Face facts! Ever since we locked up Big Boy, all the criminals on both sides of San Fransokyian society have been incarcerated. And since we're not living in one of your shitty comic books, there is _hardly_ any supervillain that we have to deal with. Don't you understand that we live in the real world where supervillains do not exist?"

Fred was shocked.

"That is not true! There's Doctor Doom! And Loki…and Magneto…with a few rogue mutants to name a few."

But that was that, Honey, Go-Go and Wasabi did no more and left the room. Fred could only think about sleeping in his costume to get even with his slowly defecting teammates.

* * *

Yama, true to his name, was as strong as a mountain and he weighed about 317 pounds. He was the owner of a high complex in the downtown area on 1020 Pine Street, a little not-too-far from Ross Alley where he had his first defeat at the hands of Hiro Hamada just one year ago. Yama, mourning for the loss of Little Yama, could never forgive Hiro even after he ended up in an overnight prison stay along with his associates, the Fujitas, Mordecai, Yin, Diego, Larceny Lu, Big Frost and Haf-and-Haf. He hoped and prayed that the day would arrive, when Hiro Hamada would come back into his life and he would finally give the perceived hustler that beating he so rightfully deserved.

His domain was the interior of a typical Japanese home from ancient times, with authentic carpentry and a pair of small trees to name a few details. It also had a 30-inch television screen where could discuss business meetings with his own associates through an alternate means. A king on his throne without a seat, it was all he had to meditate…if it had not been for the triple knock of one of his associates.

"Come in."

Yama opened his eyes and the door slid all the way to reveal Dubbs, a corrupt traditionalist politician who wore a Prussian blue bowler with a yellow brim, a Dalmatian spotted necktie, a grass green polo shirt and a pink checkerboarded suit made to match his closeted status. Last but not least, he had a pretty gruff face. He was a founding member of the Apparatus who was close to Big Boy, but not that close, for he had some form of involvement in the events circulating around the Emil Trueheart case that sent Dick Tracy into his crime-fighting career. Specifically, he had helped to secure Big Boy's release from prison when his health began to decay and even if he seemed like a pretty rotten guy, he would have never stooped down to Big Boy's level…if not Yama's, who hired the politician to act as a spy on his traditionalist enemies.

Dubbs came into the room carrying a white bundle the size of a foot-long sub sandwich under his right arm, handing it to Yama.

"Your money, Yama-san."

Yama removed the wrapping, revealing a flattened bundle of $4,000 dollars in total. Fanning it after rubbing his fingers over the portrait for any signs of a defection, he spoke to Dubbs.

"Where did you get this?"

"Texie Garcia's safe. Right from under her nose."

"Big Boy's moll?"

"Yeah, she just reopened the Club Ritz. Got it as a reward from all that clean-up duty."

"Does she know for sure? Let alone suspect your motives?"

"Not at all…unless she decides to blackmail me like she did the last time over a matter of $20,000. I had to fake my own death with blank ammunition when the cops burst in."

"Just a reminder," Yama scratched his crown with his right hand. "How long have you been in my employ now?"

"Three months. Compared to last year, Big Boy wasn't even willing to have me or any of his lawyers other than Spaldoni to join his cause. Had he succeeded, he would have replaced all the honest politicians with crooked ones like us."

"And when I found you, you said you would be willing to keep an eye on any traditionalists that I myself am interested in."

"I did. And I did so by keeping a close eye on Texie, should she and Ribs try to take back Big Boy's assets, including the club."

"Then, if I were you, I'd go to her. That way, it will be less conspicuous."

"Okay, whatever you say."

That was all Dubbs had said before he tipped his bowler and closed the door on his way out. As the sounds of his footsteps died away into the corridor, Yama's iPhone began to buzz. Picking it up and holding it into his right ear, he seemed to have recognized the voice.

"Obake."

Yama's tone turned to worry. This bastard was a technological madman. But he nodded at the man's reply with good intentions.

"Whatever you need, I will get it for you."

The TV screen behind him flickered, briefly showing the television host, Mr. Sparkles in a gooey purple suit to go with his child-like smile. Then the screen created an orange red background, materializing the rotating computer-generated model of an iceberg blue crystal that was of a pyramid shape with a smaller ledge on the left and a garbled chunk on the right. Yama acknowledged the item in question and spoke into the phone.

"Where may I find this?"

The screen flashed to a sepia-toned photograph of the SFIT entrance in broad daylight. Yama nodded to his mysterious benefactor.

"It shall be done."

And so it would…but he reckoned without the previous antics of Big Hero 6 that were committed the pervious year.

On the third day of his sophomore year, Hiro met Sora and his compadres in the lab to go over the plans for a new Baymax. It was 5-3 in favor of expanding the microbots as well.

"This is all fine and dandy," Sora told him. "Although, I think a design flaw would be good in order to tell us the difference between the two Baymaxes."

"I'm not even sure if building another Baymax is fine," Donald reprimanded. "It'll just be confusing."

"Already confusing for me seeing two of 'em," Goofy added. "So I say we stick to the microbots."

But without another word from Hiro, he decided to balance both of his projects…by doing both. He began on the round feet of Baymax #2 and drew redesigns on the microbots during class to prevent them from falling into the wrong hands for the second time. On the morning of the fourth day, he was so tired that Cass, Mochi and Junior Tracy had to wake him up from burying his head into one of the café tables.

"Are you sure you're not studying too hard, Hiro?" Junior asked.

"I'm fine, I just have too many projects to take care of."

Junior saw this as another opportunity to get closer to Hiro's genius intellect. He hoped that Hiro could him improve his own grades at the local school.

"Oh, do you think I should help you with your projects? I could be like a younger brother to you."

Hiro didn't want a younger replacement of Tadashi just about yet.

"I'd love to," he said, standing up. "But I'm sure I can handle this myself and you've got your own baby brother or sister to look after."

Then he patted Junior's head with his right hand, Aunt Cass got him a small cup of coffee and he sent him to school. And when Hiro was out of sight, Cass went back into the kitchen to wash the dishes. Junior left the café as well.

Hiro began working on the right hand of Baymax #2 by joining two wires together in order to make it function, as he learned from the age of seven back in middle school. Then Sora and Baymax #1 helped him to fill an entire can of microbots, adding up to the previous thousand that Hiro had used during superhero missions.

When the head of Baymax #2 was finished around 8:00 pm, Hiro admired the endoskeleton with tired, but grateful thoughts. Donald, Goofy and Sora gave him a small applause. Baymax could only comment.

"The endoskeleton is complete."

 _Finally._ Hiro could relax after giving it a test run, but all he needed to make the skeleton work was a chip. Copying Tadashi's would seem like the obvious route, but he was certain to add his own DNA to the chip he was preparing in order to distance #2 from #1.

"All we have to do is dress Baymax #2 and boom!"

"Actually," Baymax interrupted. "The diagnostics protocol will take seven to ten days."

"Seven to ten days?"

Hiro was not up for suffering another week of construction in favor of other subjects he could work on.

"Tadashi always ran an extensive diagnostics protocol," Baymax tried to explain. "The encoding of his DNA onto the healthcare chip would take about another day to scan, if not longer in order to achieve perfection."

"That does sound like Tadashi all right," Hiro sighed. "But I guess you do have a point. We'll start on the chip tomorrow and maybe I could find a quicker way of running the diagnostics protocol."

"Sure," Sora's eyes began to droop. "And while we're at your place, I can get your aunt to make me a cup of hot chocolate."

"It's August," Hiro told him. "Why would you need hot chocolate for?"

"Just a random thought," Sora admitted. "Unless she sells sea-salt ice cream, that would make even more sense."

But no sooner were they out of the robotics lab when Professor Granville and Miss Lane were standing beside the right-side door at the very edge of the entrance. They were on their way out from closing up the school.

"Mr. Hamada?"

Hiro's head looked over his left shoulder, conforming his fears to see an unimpressed Professor Granville holding a white folder in her left hand and a confused Miss Lane carrying the handbag on her right arm.

"What are you doing here at this hour with these people?"

But as you know, Hiro was so smart and so talkative, he thought up a lie and he thought it up quick.

"My dear professor," the boy genius said smoothly. "I had been working so hard on a certain project that I needed to get some fresh air. But now, I am taking Baymax home to my garage. I'll fix him there and I'll bring him back to the lab first thing in the morning."

But the fib didn't fool the strong-minded and independent woman of African origin. She turned on her heels and opened the door back into the building.

"Follow me."

Margo did not hear a command from her and foolishly chose to stay behind.

"You too, Miss Lane," came the command at last.

Hiro was now torn between following the dean and going back home, but that was when Sora said.

"Why don't you go on and talk with her as quickly as you can? I'll take Baymax home for you."

Nodding, Hiro walked back into the lab, confident that Sora could handle Baymax without even so much as having to think about a second glance.

* * *

Professor Granville's office was brown, reminiscent of the Kiri-no-Ma from the Tokyo Imperial Palace with a sleek wooden floor that was so shiny, she could see her reflection in it without the need of a mirror. Behind her on the right-hand side, was a landscape painting of two trees varying in height from the Asuka period. Next to it was a bookshelf of two units and six shelves from top to bottom. The bookshelf also contained a small collection of table lamps, vases and small lanterns. In between the two units on the wall was an oil painting depicting a branch of purple leaves and underneath it was a potted bamboo plant on the bottom. Above her was a pentagon shaped lantern with four black stripes on each side. On the floor was a royal red carpet by Trent Austin Design that she bought online from Wayfair. On the opposite end of the room, being the entryway of the office, were a pair of white sofas on each side, with table lamps and a desk to provide light for visitors reading magazines while the wall above the table lamps held a series of ten sizable portraits, all of them being Professor Granville's predecessors. Her desk with a pair of thick upside-down triangles for support was far from interesting. Her right-hand side offered a dark turquoise dish while the left-hand side offered an iceberg blue crystal that most occupants referred to as a paperweight. Behind her was a square window festooned by a frame of balsa wood, where she could watch her students carefully with a close eye.

As she sat on her snow-white swivel chair (Margo preferred to stand), Professor Granville presented Hiro, who was sitting in the brown wooden chair, with a lipstick red binder that spelled bad news. Expulsion perhaps? Hiro had to wait to find the answer.

"When we first met, I was worried that you would become distracted by your own agenda….or worse."

In it was a file form from the San Fransokyo Police Department with Dick Tracy's signature on the bottom. Hiro could remember Pat Patton (who was now Chief of Police) and Sam Catchem cracking about his wrists slipping out of his handcuffs when Tracy had "unfairly" arrested him and Tadashi last year. Hiro looked up to Professor Granville, the two of them making close eye contact.

"You know about the bot fights?"

"But I have to admit," Professor Granville's tone turned to positive. "You have shown discipline. You are doing exceptionally well in your classes and should be very proud of yourself."

Hiro's thoughts were turning to Baymax and he began to express worry. He quickly designed a speedy-getaway in his mind.

"Please!" he protested, trying to show adulation. "Stop giving me compliments! I don't want my head to explode you know."

"Then all I have to say is…" Professor Granville mustered a smile that was as big as Miss Lane's. "Keep up the good work."

"I will!" Hiro gave a faux yawn, covering his mouth with his right hand while the left arm was stretched. "I'd better hurry on home. I do need my beauty sleep for tomorrow. Did I say beauty sleep? I meant 'guy rest'."

Walking seven steps backwards, Hiro turned counterclockwise and opened the door. As soon as he left, Margo turned her head to face her employer.

"I was going to say 'let him be fair' in case you were going to punish him."

Professor Granville's smile drooped and her eyes looked up at Margo.

"You have been in the courtroom too long, Miss Lane. Fair is for sports."

And with that, the two women left the office and walked the rest of the way home.

When Hiro had reached the front gate, the two women had just left the lab and his Samsung Galaxy began to buzz from his hoodie pocket. Holding it in his left hand, he held it to his left ear and asked.

"Yes?"

"Hiro, I need your help!"

"Sora? You sound like you just watched a splatter movie, what's wrong?"

"It's Baymax. I think he's on low battery! You'd better come quick!"

Hiro's feet began to accelerate with every word he said.

"Where are you now?"

"Downtown! Chinatown, actually. Just follow my instructions."

Keeping his phone close to his right ear, Hiro payed close attention to the locations given to him by Sora…even more so than his classes.

* * *

Meanwhile, around that time in Ross Alley, with only the lights of five red paper lanterns to shine upon them, Fred was regaling the tale of how Big Hero 6 came together to Wasabi, Honey and Go-Go. All four of them were dressed in their CMYK color coded costumes, making them appear as if they had stepped out of the pages of a 1960s comic strip. As he stood on an almost stilted oil canister that was black in mint condition, the three comrades could only express doubt at his hopelessness. Wasabi's eyes were closed in skepticism as he rested his green visor against his right hand, Go-Go placed her right hand on her hip and Honey just stood there gripping the miniature chemical factory of a pocketbook in both hands, looking awkward as Fred made his soliloquy.

"After unrelenting battering, the team came together! Now unified, they embark on the first anniversary night patrol! Knowing they are the city's last bastion of hope—"

"Dick Tracy's the last bastion of hope," Wasabi interrupted as he opened his eyes.

"Tracy's old school! We're new school!"

Fred was saying, keeping his eyes on the street from his perch until the screeching of tires filled his ears, almost delivering a strong surge of pain into the eardrums. A grey-blue Volkswagon Jetta was speeding around the corner at about 70 miles per hour, nearly colliding its rear end with the hardware store as it continued down the road.

"That my friends, is obviously a car thief!" Fred exclaimed as the car sped away. "After it!"

He ran in the direction of the Jetta with every ounce of speed that his extended legs, provided by the suit, could carry him. The others followed after him as Fred and the Jetta turned left down to Potrero Ave, Go-Go taking the lead no thanks to her magnetic disks which gave her all the speed she wanted.

"Pull over now!"

But her shouts seemed to have been drowned out by the Jetta's engine. And that was when Go-Go took the advantage of going around the car and placing her hands on the hood where the engine was. Pushing it down with the force of her disks, the driver had little choice but to screech the vehicle to a halt just outside the general hospital, which was exactly where he needed to be.

Catching up, Fred pulled the driver seat open with his right claw and his face underneath the top third eye of his mask expressed shock at seeing the chocolate-brown haired woman in a pink shirt with a stomach that looked as big as a bowling ball. She was hyperventilating, perhaps from the shock of stopping so suddenly, perhaps she was in labor. Her husband, a Caucasian male with brown hair, a pencil moustache and grey eyes who wore a dark blue shirt with a dusty-brown vest and black trousers, seemed either furious or frightened.

"ARE YOU FUCKING CRAZY?! MY WIFE IS IN LABOR!"

" _Dios mio_ ," Honey Lemon was aghast. "We are so sorry. _Felicitaciones!_ "

She closed her eyes with a smile as she held her thumbs up for an extra amount of cheers, but the man was unimpressed. He got out of the car, walked around the front, unbuckled the seatbelt for his wife and helped her out of the car…but not before he turned back to the Spaniard girl in the pink costume and rose his left middle finger in an outrage before he and the woman disappeared into the hospital.

"Did he just flip the bird at us?" Fred asked to Go-Go.

"Are you that blind?" Go-Go asked back with a hint of sweet mixed with poison in her voice.

"No, but at least we showed some hustle. Then on the other hand, I just hope the lady doesn't suffer a miscarriage."

But the others were just about tired…for once in their careers.

"Fred," Go-Go sighed. "There is clearly nothing going on."

And the three of them left Fred in a sight of dismay. Had they looked over shoulders, they would have noticed Sora, Goofy, Hiro and Donald chasing a crazed and wobbly Baymax, but of course, they were too concerned with their own lives to think about them.

The search for the runaway Baymax took the foursome into the mouth of Good Luck Alley, where a store of red paper lanterns stood on the left-hand side, allegorically signaling that despite it's name, Good Luck Alley was riddled with danger. When Baymax threw himself straight into the belly of the beast, Hiro and Sora could see a wave of electric blue sparks emitting from the alley way.

"BAYMAX!" they cried.

Hiro's heart began to shatter at the thought of losing Tadashi for good as he dashed into the alley. Sora ran after him, while Donald and Goofy, who preferred to wait outside for any intruders, watched him from the entry of the alley as a vantage point.

Coming to the garage just fifty feet into the alley, Hiro could recognize the figures of Big Frost, Mordecai, Haf-and-Haf, Yin, Larceny Lu and Diego, standing around an incapacitated Baymax in confusion and bewilderment. Diego had been holding a tuning fork over Baymax's right thumb, explaining the outburst of electricity. The scene gave Sroa and Hiro a great amount of pain in their hearts and before they could rush in and rescue the robot from this display of ungrateful torture, the cocking of an SIG Sauer P226 rung in their ears, followed by a gruff voice.

"Where's your brother now, Zero?"

Hiro did not expect to meet the voice it belonged to for the first time in a year. Yama was looming over him and Sora like the mountain he truly was, his face leering in total anger.

"Ever since you locked my ass up in jail, I have been waiting for this moment to come."

Hiro plucked up courage.

"You're not still mad about that, are you?"

"About what?" Sora was curious.

"It's a long story."

And that was all Hiro said before his mouth found itself sucking on the barrel of Yama's SIG. One act of pulling the trigger down and he would be with Tadashi again, but in the world of the living, he had a purpose to keep up with and did not want to see his aunt all alone. Sora raised the Kingdom Key above his head with both hands, hoping to knock the fat bastard into a coma, but the mobster's free right hand struck his nose and forced him to the floor.

"How does it feel? Tasting the lead of death? I have waited for this moment for so long, so fucking long, that you will have nothing else to worry about."

Yama's eyes began to lose focus, concentrating on the ID card hanging from Hiro's neck. Surprised, he quickly withdrew the pistol and gave Hiro three seconds to breath before he asked.

"You go to that nerd school?"

 _He sounds like last year's version of me._ Hiro gained his breath before responding in an angry tone.

"Yeah, my brother worked there before he died."

The mention of his brother aroused Hiro to the point of exhaustion from his anger, combined with the search for Baymax. Yama placed the gun into his right pocket and gave the boy genius a cheery façade.

"You and I are going to make a trade. You get me this paperweight…"

He pulled out his iPhone to reveal the iceberg blue crystal, which Hiro instantly recognized from Professor Granville's office.

"…and you can have your robot back."

Sora, who regained consciousness, struggled to his feet. He was just in time to witness Yama give one more detail to Hiro.

"And I'm warning you; you even think about telling Tracy about this. You're gonna get a bullet up your ass."

" _Watashi wa gimudzukemasu._ "

Hiro bowed in the respectful posture of his Japanese heritage and dragged the groggy Sora out of the alleyway just as the dark clouds above them produced small drops of rain.

"What happened?" asked Donald as soon as they left.

"I'll explain everything when we speak to Fred," Hiro told him and Goofy.

And they took the next trolley down to California Street.

Through the wind and through the rain, it took Fred at least five jumps before he had made it into the topmost spire of the mansion, his hands on his hips and legs perched outward as he looked up to the sky and performed a solo soliloquy. A novel of sorts was forming inside his head.

"Alone, he stood…buffeted by the rain, unwavering in his mission, undaunted by the goddamned face that his friends don't value superhero culture in all of it's ass-kicking glory!"

Fred wanted to drown in the rain, if not commit suicide by jumping down to the front steps. Then again, he was thinking about taking his clothes off and let the cold, cold rain take his life when Heathcliff, an umbrella in his right hand and a tray holding a cup of hot herbal tea in his left, appeared below him.

"Master Frederick, a hot cup of tea perhaps?"

At that moment, Hiro, flanked by the heroic trio of foreigners, came running up the front steps to Heathcliff. The butler's face remained stuck in the same mood when Hiro asked him.

"Heathcliff, where is Fred? I need to speak with him."

"Up on the roof," he said as loud as his voice could be heard above the pouring rain.

"What the hell are you doing up there?" asked Hiro, cupping his hands to his mouth.

"Narrating!" Fred yelled.

Then he spotted Sora and his comraderies.

"And is that Sora down there with you? If so, hello again!"

Sora waved his right hand at the costumed superhero and called out.

"You know Fred, we can talk more about this if you just came down!"

After two minutes, Hiro held a pow-wow in Fred's room. Fred himself was the first to ask.

"So what wrong is Lady Justice calling us to right?"

Hiro's Adam's apple drew itself back before explaining.

"It's Yama. He stole Baymax for who knows what and he wants me to steal a crystal-like paperweight from Professor Granville's office."

"In other words," Sora added. "He made a pact with the devil."

Fred was interested.

"Go on."

"In order to do that I have to break into Granville's desk and take it."

"That," said Fred, giving Hiro an accusing right index finger. "Is what Lady Justice would call stealing."

"It's the only way I can get Baymax back. And as soon as we make the transaction, we'll steal the crystal back."

"Did it not occur to you that we could just attack Yama and steal Baymax back?"

"They have _guns!_ "

"So? Bring your suit."

"No, Fred. I want to handle this in a civil manner. The transaction needs to be done without Big Hero 6 for once."

Then Goofy spoke up.

"How do you plan to steal the crystal from Granville's office? Isn't it like uh…locked?"

"I need to add her code to my ID," Hiro explained. "And we'll do it tomorrow."

* * *

And so it was arraigned. When Hiro arrived at the school, he did his studies without hesitation while Sora, Donald and Goofy, hiding in Tadashi's workspace, went over a short list of plans to get Professor Granville's code, which would take place at around 7:30 in the night. With Fred's help, they would be able to pull the job off with a microchip that was installed into every student's ID card in order to gain access to almost everything that was limited to a student's standards. This had been put into a stronger effect after the robbery of the microbot plans committed by Flattop and his gang on the night of that fateful showcase that took Tadashi away from Hiro's life.

Hiro, meanwhile, was growing increasingly worried for Baymax, hoping and praying that Yama and his cabal were not even thinking about dismantling him. His worries were quelled when Fred came into Tadashi's lab. The time was 7:23 and Hiro's plan was close to being put into action.

"In order to add Professor Granville's code to my ID. I need to get close to her."

"How close?" asked Fred. "Are we talking in the same general vicinity or are we talking uncomfortably close?"

"Uncomfortably close," Hiro added sheepishly. "But not the way you are thinking of. A May-December romance between me and Professor Granville is completely out of the question."

Two minutes later, Hiro was in the hallway, stuffing the ID under his shirt to avoid suspicion. Fred's voice came into the intercom that lodged into his right ear.

"Hiro? Can you hear me?"

"Yes, I can," Hiro retorted. "You and Sora just wait for the signal and hit the button."

Fred was sitting in front of the blue LED computer, his fists trying to contain his excitement.

"This is so exciting," he whispered to Sora. "I have never been a hacker before."

Then he asked through the intercom.

"Which button was it again?"

"The right shift button," Hiro whispered from the other end.

"I knew that," Fred scoffed, looking at a square piece of yellow paper written by Hiro that said "push me" with an arrow directing itself onto it.

The sound of the laboratory door that was two labs away from Hiro came open and there stood both Professor Granville and Miss Lane finishing up the nightly inspection. She slid her cream yellow card down the grey door scanner in her right hand and that served as Hiro's cue to get what he had needed.

"Target spotted," he tried be as quiet as he could. "I am going in."

"Roger that. God, I love saying those words."

Hiro wasted no time casually approaching the dean and her assistant, ignoring Fred's deep, Gloucestershire accent impression of "Roger that."

"Excuse me Professor Granville and Miss Lane."

The two women shared opposing expressions of greet upon seeing him.

"Yes, Mr. Hamada?" asked the dean.

Hiro's words were concise and clear.

"I was thinking about what you said and it's very nice to have someone here who believes in me. So all I have to say is… _arigato._ "

He stretched his arms wide open and intended to give her the same type of hugs Tadashi would give him whenever he was feeling sad. But Professor Granville, who believed that she was too old for hugs (if not a total haphephobe), took two steps back when Hiro's arms closed in on her. She spun a 180 on Hiro just as Honey, Go-Go and Wasabi took their curious time to watch them from the hall. Hiro tried to group his arms around her bodice, but Professor Granville was fast and feisty and Miss Lane stepped in from behind her to intervene.

"If you want a hug Hiro, you can always hug me."

Hiro wasn't certain if Miss Lane had any access to Granville's office the same way she did. He just gave her a polite smile and spoke with a tone to go with it.

"That's very appreciative, Miss Lane, but I think your boss deserves a hug more than you do."

Then Sora's voice came on the other line, whispering.

"Think of Tadashi. That'll get the waterworks flowing."

Almost immediately, Hiro turned clockwise by 125 degrees and rubbed his eyes, searching his memories for Tadashi's death and the last words he ever said to him. Even in times like this, it was so painful that Hiro's tears were authentic. He turned back to Granville and Lane with a sad kind of look, sobbing.

"I'm so sorry, it's just that…with Tadashi dead and everything, I am going through a lot of hardships. I miss him so much."

And with that, he cupped his arms around Professor Granville's neck, surprising both her and Miss Lane. The dark-skinned woman was so startled that she reluctantly patted his back with her right hand five times over. Margo, expressing sympathy for the young boy, finally understood the connection between her star pupil and the namesake of the memorial hall.

As they waited in the laboratory, the whisper of Hiro's voice came on the other side of the intercom.

"Now."

Fred had forgotten that he had bought a Styrofoam bowl of Nissin Cup Noodles from the cafeteria that he had already eaten halfway through. By the time he had heard Hiro's reply, his left hand jumped forwards in surprise and the hot liquid spilled all the way down from the middle of his shirt to where his privates would be, with some of the broth spilling down to his thighs.

"My balls!" he shouted, causing Sora to jump back.

Sora wasted no time trying to help Fred, he had to help Hiro get Baymax back. He stared at the right shift key, and knowing that Hiro would not be able to hold onto Professor Granville for all eternity, aimed his right index finger on the shift key and quickly pressed it down, the transaction having been completed.

"All right now," Professor Granville assured the teary-eyed teen. "Pull yourself together."

The screen read complete and the code was all his.

"We got the copy!" Sora confirmed.

That was all Hiro needed to hear as he pushed himself back from Professor Granville, who was trying to repost herself and said.

"There! All better now. I don't want to keep you waiting!"

"Thank God," she muttered to herself.

The two women lead themselves away and Hiro ran off back to the lab to wait for the next phase of his plan. He was excited and anxious as he gave Sora a silent cheer. Baymax would be coming back to him and things would return to normal at last.

* * *

Professor Granville and Miss Lane left the office at around 8:15. The latter was wearing her black beret and top and did not speak until they were at the end of the hall, with Professor Granville asking.

"You ought to introduce me to Mr. Cranston sometime, Miss Lane. I hear he is a very good philanthropist."

"And a man of secrets," Margo's eyes darted to the ceiling before going back to her chief.

"Secrets?" Professor Granville was very inquisitive over the subject.

"Secrets as to how a man can keep his successful rate going."

As soon as they had reached the elevator, Hiro, watching their departure from behind, waved the card in his left hand in front of the door lock and quietly entered the office, almost fearful that she could come back to reclaim something that was missing. The paperweight was all his as both hands balanced it carefully off of the stand and lifted it up to the level of his neck. His eyes studied the intricate details, but whatever Yama wanted to use it for could only be guessed.

"Did you get it?" the whisper of Fred came on the other line.

"Yes," Hiro replied. "And it's heavier than it looks. But why would Yama want this?"

"Maybe it's very valuable," came Sora on the other line. "Perhaps we will find out once we give it to him."

"No, Sora," Hiro's voice was stern and clear. "I need you, Goofy and Donald to cover for me while Fred and I take it to Yama alone. Fred, meet me outside the gate."

Dejected, Sora slumped into the chair as Fred got off and rushed out of the lab. He turned to the duck and dog and uttered pathetically.

"I don't know about you, but I think Hiro is about to make the biggest mistake of his life since last year."

Hiro and Fred took the bus to the mouth of Good Luck Alley without even so much as a questionable remark from the driver, who kept his eyes on the road even after he dropped them off.

"I have to warn you, Fred. Yama and his gang are dangerous people, so I suggest you let me do the talking."

"Sure, I'll keep my eyes peel and my lips sealed."

And so he did when they came face to face with Haf-and-Haf. Recognizing Hiro, he inquired.

"What the fuck do you want."

"We would like to speak to Yama," came Hiro's reply.

"And tell him that we are _very_ dangerous types and we do not like to be kept waiting."

Hiro's mouth was agape at Fred breaking his own rule like the true hypocrite that he was. But he wasn't too much of a hypocrite since he often kept his word. But soon, Haf-and-Haf opened the sliding door and the two entered the lair of Yama with nervous steps. Fred eventually gained some of his courage when Hiro spoke to him.

"Why wouldn't you let me finish?"

Fred had fully regained his confidence when he replied.

"We both know that it was never going to work."

Back in the lab, Go-Go and her curious companions hoped to have a word with Hiro about his scene with Professor Granville and Miss Lane. Honey opened the door with her right hand, speaking her voice into the empty room.

"Hiro, we're going to Noodle Burger, do you want to come—Sora?!"

Sora, who had been pondering over Hiro and Fred's ultimate fates, snapped out of his trance to see the three powerhouses of Big Hero 6 standing before him. The Keyblader nearly fell out of the chair when his head spun at them. Goofy and Donald, who were sitting by the window, also jumped back as well.

"Honey?"

"Goofy?"

"Go-Go?"

"Donald?"

"Wasabi?"

"What are you all doing here?" everyone present spoke in unison.

"I came to celebrate your anniversary," Sora confessed.

"Forget the anniversary!" Wasabi argued at the foreigner's tone sounding like Fred's. "Where's Hiro?"

Sora tried to be quick.

"He and Fred went to see Yama to get Baymax back and told me and my friends to cover for him. But now the cover is blown so we have to get him back before he makes a tragic mistake!"

"And where do you suppose we'll find Yama?"

"How should I know?" Sora faltered. "We might have a chance of interrogating someone just to get him back."

Go-Go pondered over the mention of interrogation for a short three seconds.

"I think I have an idea."

Her friends peered closer towards her, worried over the outcome.

"Why not we get all gussied up and go to the Ritz?"

* * *

Texie Garcia was as beautiful as Dolores del Rio on the night she made her Hollywood debut, pale as Texas Guinan the day she died in Vancouver just a hundred years ago, and her hair was as black as Joan Crawford the morning she was to arrive on the set of _Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?_ in full makeup. Her eyes were a lustrous blue, her lips blood red. She was dressed head to heel in black with the exception of her gloves, ruby earrings, pump shoes and harlequin diamond bracelets on each wrist which shared the same shade of bright red. Her flat pocketbook was also red, hanging by her right hip from a black strap, camouflaging it if one were to look at her from a profile view.

For the past year or so, Texie had been sentenced to community service around Broadway Street since none of the bullets found on the victims of last year's attack had been matched up with her Mauser C96. The same went for Ribs Mocco, another close associate of Big Boy with a prominent nose and an almost heavyset build with a plum bowler and a checkered suit to go with it. Most of their duties went from cleaning the streets to washing the windows of shops and cars for a small fee, which made Texie long for her days of power and lounging. At long last, two of Big Boy's shysters, Hy Habeas and Dan "The Squealer" Mucelli, agreed to have Texie released, while Ribs would spend an extra day of street sweeping before all four of them would bring Club Ritz and Big Boy's surviving associates back under management.

The founding Apparatus members had been operating the club for at least eleven days when the half members of the team showed up. Club Ritz, as it looked on the inside, had a black marble floor with art deco light fixtures. A small stage for the band was placed before the five sets of tables all neatly done in an impeccable setup. The black grand piano where 88 Keyes once played his tunes on the Club Ritz radio stood dead and silent without its master.

But it was on the third floor where most of the action was taking place. Dubbs was having his own blood stained on the red fiberglass table of the conference room where sit downs took place. Dan's right hand was gripping the back of his throat and shoving his nose onto the table.

"I still care for you as much as Big Boy did," Texie explained to the wounded underling from the right corner of the table. "But all I want to know is, where's my money?"

Dubbs gave three stifled breaths, then came the answer she wanted to hear.

"Yama."

Texie pressed her head closer to him, her right hand holding a grip on his throat.

"Where?"

"Good Luck Alley."

The mobstress smiled at this before a bouncer in a bottle green suit and cap came in.

"Miss Garcia, we have visitors waiting for you downstairs."

"I'll see to them. You watch over Dubbs for me."

And with that, she made her way down the stairs, leaving her male subordinates to watch over the snitch. Her first sight was that of Honey, Go-Go, Wasabi sitting at one table while Sora, Donald and Goofy sat next to them on the right-hand side.

"Well," she smiled. "Big Hero 3. Where HAVE you been?"

"3?" Sora was perplexed. "Don't the additional three of us make six?"

He pointed at himself, Goofy and Donald with his right index finger, but Texie just laughed.

"I know you're not the official members of Big Hero 6. You just helped them."

Go-Go was far from being a proper lady at the sight of seeing a criminal like Texie out of jail. Still, she was just about as impatient as ever when she asked.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, we're looking for Hiro and Fred. We believe Yama's holding them captive."

Texie beamed.

"Well, what a coincidence! One of the club's staff members has been laundering money from me and giving it to Yama. He says you can find him at Good Luck Alley. I heard he set up shop there after the last time he got arrested, no thanks to Hiro and Tadashi."

The sudden mention of his name sent a small, icy chill through her veins, but the team members held them back.

"Do you know the exact address?" asked Honey.

"1020 Pine Street."

"Then that's where we're going," Sora said standing up.

Go-Go took the lead in front of him.

"I know the way."

"It was good seeing you."

Texie waved her right hand in "goodbye mode" with a sweet voice and a hinting smile of gladness as they left, but once they were out the door, she placed that hand on her hip and narrowed her eyes. There was something about Yama that she wanted to know, but it was known only to them.

In his dojo of an office, Hiro and Fred stood before Yama, who was admiring the paperweight in his right hand, enamored by the details. Towards the room on their right was Baymax suspended by two chains connecting to his shoulders, denuded of his inflatable skin and as dead as a doornail. Mordecai and Larceny Lu stood behind Yama, guarding their boss at the plausible cost of their own lives.

"That's Baymax's skeleton?" Fred asked out of sheer stupidity. "It looks so….naked."

As much as he tried to push back thought of seeing what they had done to his brother's _magnum opus_ , Hiro stomped his way to Yama and shouted.

"What do you do with Baymax's skin?!"

"Threw it out. But I don't think that will be any of your concern anymore, Zero."

Yama snapped his left index and thumb fingers, summoning groups of four from the three entrances on all sides excluding Yama's: one led by Big Frost on the far right away from where Baymax was being held, one led by Haf-and-Haf behind them and one on their left led by Yin and Diego. They were all carrying an individual firearm…aiming right for their heads. Things began to coalesce in Hiro's mind.

"We had a deal!"

Yama scoffed.

"Bitch please. Did you really think I was going to give you back your robot? I think I might have use for him."

This was enough to arouse Hiro's rage.

"I swear on my _onii-chan's_ grave, I will neuter you of your balls."

This gave Larceny Lu the opportunity to fire a single warning shot just six inches away from Hiro's right foot with her silver-plated Harrington and Richardson Model 733. She blew a placating breath into the gun's barrel and asked Yama.

"What do we do with them?"

"Lock them up and file a ransom note."

It took Lu and Diego just twenty-six seconds to throw Hiro and Fred into a cell, located outside of Yama's office. As soon as his back made contact with the stainless-steel floor, Hiro got to his feet and pounded at the door six times with both hands shouting "LET US OUT!" in a pungent Japanese. Fred, standing up, took in the futuristic details of the cell that contrasted with the traditionalist look of Yama's quarters. The cell was made of German steel and had at least five lines of white florescent lights travelling from the ceiling to the floor. The wall on the right side was flat while the left side was curved in an almost 70-degree angle. The door, which was close to the right side of the wall, looked like it had been shouldered with handprints with a number code and a red monitor on its left to indicate that it was locked. All Hiro could say about it was…

"Great, just fucking great. No windows, no air ducts…it seems that the only possible escape would be an unlocked door."

Then his frown turned into a smile as his eyes went back to the numbers code by the door.

"I think I might need to crosswire it."

"Good," muttered a doubtful Fred. "I'll just be over here whistling."

And before he could whistle to the tune of "Yankee Doodle Dandy", Hiro had pulled the security code plating off with both hands, and wielded the orange and yellow wires together, certain that were just about as correct as he had predicted. Sure enough, the door slid open. On quiet feet, they left the cell with the door open.

The lighting in the rooms behind the screens were dimly lit, no one seemed to know that they were there. The quiet wind of the ventilation shaft filled the corridors as it seemed that Yama and his subordinates were all having sweet dreams about blood and robberies. To Hiro and Fred, it seemed like they were about to face a winding maze.

"After we get Baymax back," Fred whispered into Hiro's left ear. "What is our strategy? Fists or legs?"

"I would suggest running. We don't even have our suits on and those guys are packing heat."

And no sooner had they turned to a left-hand side corner where they spotted Larceny Lu, posing like a model in front of them. Her right hand was resting against the wall, while her left hand was clutching her hip and both of her ankles were crossed. Her face was uglier than ever with that disapproving glare.

"Can I help you two boys?" she asked sounding annoyed.

Fred kept a brave face.

"We were going nowhere."

Then Hiro noticed the hilt of the H&R Model 733 sticking out of Lu's pocketbook, which was zipped open. Hiro's right hand quickly grabbed the gun and before she could put both of her hands up, he and Fred ran back the same way they came…right into the waiting eyes of Mordecai, standing there as still as a very hard statue made of the strongest Carrera marble.

Hiro held the H&R to Mordecai's chest, but Larceny Lu was fast as she came from behind and reclaimed the pistol with her right hand.

"I'll take that," she said doing so. "What should do with 'em Mordy?"

"Take 'em to Yama."

The command was as swift as the movements Hiro and Fred faced upon being taken to Yama's office. The fat bastard was sitting crisscrossed on his olive-green pillow, dismayed and quietly furious.

"If you look at it from a certain point of view, Yama," Hiro's explanation attempts were feeble. "I did you a service by testing your security system."

"Thank you," Yama's reply was calm before shouted to his heavies. "Get rid of them!"

Fred lifted his right index finger to the ceiling, curious.

"One quick question: When you say 'get rid of us' do you mean throw us out or…"

He paused, instantly knowing the word.

"Death?"

"Death…" Yama echoed sinisterly.

And before Fred even knew it, his right ear was now blocked by the barrel of the Heckler & Koch USP Compact held by Mordecai. The same went for Hiro, whose left ear was lodged by Lu's own pistol.

"Well, it was nice knowing you, Hiro," Fred had happily accepted his fate with a smile of greatness. "Now we can see Tadashi again together."

Poor Hiro looked up at Fred and accepted his impending death as well, but before the trigger could be pulled down. There came a crashing noise of debris and stones, from a familiar plasma blade cutting the roof open in the shape of a circle. Belonging to none other than Wasabi, he came first, followed by Sora, then Go-Go, then Goofy, then Honey and finally Donald. The team took action poses with Sora in front of them, holding his Kingdom Keyblade out with the teeth in the direction of Yama's heart. Had it had been the dark Keyblade wielded by Riku a long while back, there would be a chance that Yama's heart would have been removed from his body almost instantly.

"I knew you could not resist the call of being a superhero!" Fred congratulated them.

But there was no time to celebrate as the doors slid open to the gangs of three, lead by Big Frost, Haf-and-Haf, Diego and Yin, their guns aimed at the hearts of the intruders. Mordecai and Larceny Lu aimed their firearms at the intruders as well.

Sliding back by ten feet, Go-Go threw her right-hand disk at a tow-headed heavy in a swamp-green suit before he could fire off his Glock, firing the bullet right into the roof. Then the other criminals jumped into the scene as the disk returned to Go-Go. Bullets flew and ricocheted across the room as Honey's left hand threw a ball of ice at Big Frost, literally freezing him on the surface. Haf-and-Haf tried at the very least to wound Wasabi with his lupara, but he was fast enough to grab the criminal by the armpits and throw him above his head and onto the floor. Then Mordecai joined the fight with a well-aimed shot to Go-Go's heart, but she was fast enough to use her disks as a deflector shield against the bullet that fired directly back at it's shooter. It was the bullet that, a split-second later, drilled into his chest, pierced through his heart and came out the other side in a wind of blood that splattered against the wall, some of it even getting onto Yama's left shoulder. Then with wide eyes, the man fell on the left side of his body at the exact same moment that _rigor mortis_ had set in. Mordecai was dead.

Ignoring their fallen member, Yin and Diego rushed towards Wasabi before Honey threw another chem-ball that spilled a large puddle of ice-green glue onto the floor, trapping their legs from toe to ankle. This gave Wasabi the opportunity to throw a swift right jab at Diego and a left one at Yin.

Donald seized the opportunity to throw a half-minute sleeping spell on Yama and Goofy's shield clipped Larceny Lu's chin, weakening her to the floor. Sora rushed over to the youngest of the team.

"Hiro, are you all right?"

"Yes," Hiro hugged him like he was Tadashi, having come back as a guardian angel to watch over him. "We're fine. But how did you find us?"

"Were you on night patrol without us?!" Fred angrily accused Go-Go with his right index finger.

"Texie Garcia told us."

This came from Go-Go.

"Big Boy's moll?!" Fred was appalled.

"Go-Go figured that she knew where you two were," Honey tried to explain.

Hiro observed Baymax still hanging from the chains to the left of where Yama usually sat, he and Fred rushed to the captive robot, but Larceny Lu, her chin bleeding from Goofy's shield, weakly aimed her 733 at the two males. She intended to aim for Hiro's head, followed by Fred's neck, knowing that such shots would be fatal. But given the weakness of her current state, she inadvertently pulled the trigger down, the gun went off, the bullet rocketed from its barrel and grazed the top of Fred's right arm, completely destroying the specific section of the white sleeve and leaving a trail of blood in it's wake. Fred yelped in pain and Hiro jumped forward as the former tried to hold the blood back in with his left palm.

"Oh my God! I've been shot! I'VE BEEN SHOT!"

Larceny Lu lapsed into unconsciousness and Hiro's hands were instantly in contact with Baymax's right leg as the spell on Yama wore off and he shot himself up towards Hiro, his left hand grabbing him by the hood of his hoodie.

"As I told you before, _shōnen,_ nobody hustles Yama!"

"And gets away with it?" Hiro's smile was sly but fearful.

Before Yama could do anything else, the teeth of Sora's Keyblade stuck his crown and he fell backwards to the floor.

"Way to go, Sora!" Fred hissed through the pain.

Grinning over his victory, Sora swung his Keyblade twice at the chains and helped Hiro remove Baymax from the wooden clamps suspending him from the floor and towards the center of the room close to the hole in the roof was. They attached Baymax's shoulders to a pair of silver clamps hanging from a Bell Jet Ranger X waiting for them outside and with Hiro on top, Honey on his left, Go-Go on his right, Wasabi on the bottom left and Fred on the bottom right, they took off into the air. Sora activated his Keyblade Glider and followed after them with Goofy and Donald holding onto the wings. The pilot of the Bell, being none other than Heathcliff, gave the team a left thumb up and took off back to the robotics lab where the team would strike a confession out of Hiro.

In Tadashi's lab, Hiro, Goofy, Donald and Sora were met with crossed arms and mean expressions from Go-Go, Honey and Wasabi (Fred joined about four seconds later), impatiently waiting to hear his confession. Hiro bowed his head in remorse and spoke at last.

"Guys, I am sorry that I did not tell you earlier…"

Honey pursed her lips and took a step forward with the tone of a stern mother.

"You could have gotten hurt."

"Not as badly as Fred?" Sora asked.

"Not as badly as the heart break you almost gave us," Wasabi pointed an accusing left index finger at him before it went to Fred. "And you helped him steal that paperweight from Professor Granville's office! NOW YAMA HAS IT!"

Hiro knew that he had to calm him.

"Actually," he uttered, reaching into his hoodie pocket with his left hand. "I got it from Yama's desk when Donald put him under that sleeping spell."

And he presented the crystal, enamoring the party present in the room.

"I must admit," smiled Go-Go. "I am impressed, but I would not want you making deals with the _gokudō_ again."

"Don't worry," Hiro reassured her. "I won't. All I need to do now is return the crystal, reskin Baymax and it will be like nothing ever happened."

Hiro's plans for building another Baymax had ground to a halt the moment after he had carefully placed the paperweight back into Granville's office. He spent the next day with Sora making microbots while Professor Granville herself was writing a study sheet for the final semester of school. Doing such work ahead of time would give her and Miss Lane more time to keep up with their social lives as well as overseeing the progress of her students. By 4:14, she had noticed that the paperweight seemed to be about an inch away from it's usual position. Assuming that it had been that way from a small, unnoticeable earthquake that she never felt, her hands pushed the crystal back into it's usual position and resumed work, looking forward to a well-deserving dinner with Miss Lane and "Lamont Cranston".

At the end of the day, Hiro had refitted Baymax with his new skin and the robot repaid Hiro and the Keybladers Three with a big hug that lasted until the sun went down. Hiro felt safe and snug in Baymax's arms, knowing that everything was all right in his world.

Yama and his heavies dropped Mordecai's corpse off at a morgue and the coroner arraigned a small funeral with five of his relatives attending. They had been told from the priest that Mordecai had been caught in the crossfire of a shooting, but paid him little mind considering how self-centered and unpleasant the man had been during his childhood years. By 8:27 pm, Yama had presented his cronies with a brand-new project that he hoped would emotionally hurt Hiro.

"Mordecai's death will prove nothing compared to what I have in store."

And he presented a small factory producing copies of Baymax's skeleton that were close to being finished. After making his deal with Hiro, Yama had begun work on cutting Baymax's skin open with a carving knife and immediately place him into the factory where every last detail of his skeleton would be copied, including an equal supply of battle chips, which he had removed the socket. All of the inner workings and exterior plating were copied to the same quality the skeleton had been in when it had been captured…with a few deadly modifications.

"First, I'll get Zero, then Tracy and finally have the whole table of governors and the mayor executed on national TV. I'll own this town!"

Yama smiled, bearing a wicked grin as he said this. Everything, as it had seemed, was coming up roses.

* * *

The next morning, things were looking up as Aunt Cass got the Lucky Cat Café ready for brunch. She came out of the kitchen, shouting over the usual small talk of her usual customers, carrying four bowls, two on each side of…

"Guacamole and tuna nachos, coming through!"

She gave the bottom right one to B.O. Plenty, who rubbed his hands together while licking his chops. But before he scarf down the whole bowl, Cass covered his hands, which were roughened from work, with a pair of white kitten mittens. They had a cat's smiling face on the palms with a paw for the thumbs and a black squiggle on the back representing a paw.

"Careful!" Cass warned him. "It's hot!"

Mary Steele, Toby Townley and Mrs. Matsuda were sitting at a round table, sipping on cups of lemonade through straws that were quickly emptied.

"Refiller! On it!" Cass shouted before they could even speak.

She rushed right over to the refrigerator and grabbed the glass pitcher of lemonade, pouring it into the glasses halfway through and completely emptying the pitcher. Then she gave a bottle of ketchup to Tess and Junior who were sitting nearby and went back into the kitchen. She had just dusted her hands upon leaving, when she noticed a red container of dirty dishes standing on a small round table by the stairs. There were at least nineteen cups, bowls and dishes stained with brown splats from customers not having finished every last bit of their meals and a family of three flies were hovering around it. Swinging her left forearm while holding the upper part with her right hand, Cass grabbed the container and prepared to lift it off the table.

But try as she might with her inferior muscles, the container would not leave the table by another inch. Then Cass used her knees to push the container upwards, and before she even knew it, she was lifting the container effortlessly into the air by four feet. Underneath, she could see an extra right hand pushing it along with her own. The hand belonged to none other than Sora.

"Need an extra hand?" he asked with a friendly beam.

"Sora?! You're back!"

Cass was surprised.

As soon as Sora carried the dishes into the kitchen, Baymax and Hiro came in with Goofy and Donald waiting outside.

"How come you two didn't tell me that Sora was back?" Cass asked, not showing signs of anger in her voice.

"I got caught up with school," Hiro explained. "He came to celebrate the anniversary of me and the guys saving San Fransokyo from Callaghan and Big Boy."

"Sure," Cass sounded a bit unfazed. "But as I said before, I don't want you going out on dangerous missions, it's not safe."

Hiro, having heard this at least sixty-six times before, rolled his eyes and saw Sora walking out of the kitchen with free hands.

"Miss Hamada, why don't you carry on with work, I'll speak to Hiro about the whole superhero thing."

Cass glanced at Sora for two seconds before going back to work as they and Baymax made their way upstairs to Hiro's room, which hadn't changed much since the last time he had visited it. Sitting on Hiro's bed, Sora spoke first.

"You know, Hiro. If you ever someone like Tadashi in your void, I would be happy to accept the task of being your big brother for a day or two."

"That's very nice of you, Sora, but I think Baymax is all I need, he does have Tadashi's genetics."

"But Baymax is not human, no matter how much he tries to act human."

"I have had some human moments," said Baymax, pointing his right index finger to the ceiling. "Like the time I suggested to Hiro to keep reminding himself that there are no dead ends."

"See? Hiro told him. Baymax is all I need. You're welcome to help me anytime, but no one can really replace Tadashi."

Sora understood this, but his unending desire to help had completely gone to his head.

* * *

Yama had a rough day; the bot fights were becoming less and less interesting, even with at least ten of the various opponents that he had faced in the past. His mind was currently obsessed with Hiro and lust for revenge that the young genius had escaped from. He found business with the other criminals to be dull and thought he would be better off on some private island away from Hiro, his allies and his mysterious benefactor. His Lincoln limousine arrived at his Pine Street headquarters by 7:13 that night and when his uniform clad chauffer opened the right-hand side passenger door to him, he stumped out of the limo looking bored and displaced. At the same time, he was sulking over the loss of the sculpture that he needed for his caller. He sulked all the way to the elevator, listening to the low whir of the elevator rising to the 88th floor-the top floor.

The evening had become a lot more interesting, when on the elevator screen above the floor numbers was a logo, depicting a horned cyclops with tear shaped nostrils, four sharp teeth on the top and two on the bottom. In-between the bottom teeth was a tongue that stretched to the right side of the chin and pointed downwards. The logo was against a mint green background of computer characters such as numbers and letters, 20 rows in total going up and down between the odd and the even numbers. Yama did not seem to notice this until the elevator's bright lights were replaced by a blood red tinge and body of the elevator began to rumble, its brakes having activated upon manual control.

Then, he recognized the insignia.

"Did you get the item?" a distorted voice belonging to an English fellow asked.

"No," Yama hoped that Obake would not hear him.

"So you failed…and you know what I intend to do with failures."

The screen went orange and the elevator shook violently as brakes released themselves from the track…and in three seconds flat the elevator plummeted back down to earth, intending to crash and claim the life of its sole passenger.

"WAIT!" screamed Yama. "I HAVE SOMETHING BETTER!"

He pounded the screen with his right fist, praying that Obake would heed his words. The sudden stop of the elevator on the fifth floor brought him to the ground. Noticing that the lights were on, Yama pushed himself up and Obake's voice sounded again.

"Show me."

With his heart now beating at an incredibly fast rate, Yama, not wishing to die from a heart attack, brought the elevator back up to his office on the 88th floor where six of the skeletal Baymaxes were practicing karate chop actions. They stood upon recognizing their master, their pupils glowing a crimson color.

"I see potential," came Obake's voice as the three-dimensional model of the crystal appeared on Yama's widescreen TV.

"I think it's better than that piece of shit," Yama smiled slyly.

But it turned into a frown when the screen changed to the schematics of the Baymax skeleton.

"No, but most useful for obtaining it. And Yama….do not. Fail. Me. Again."

Yama frowned. His sad, pathetic self had come to the concern that he was being enslaved.

At Lee Manor, after getting his wound bandaged thanks to Heathcliff, Fred invited Wasabi and the girls into his room for a demonstration of a recent purchase. To his left in front of Heathcliff, was a round object covered in white cloth. Fred addressed his small audience in his own impression of a regal tone.

"Ladies and gentleheroes…on behalf of the fact that we kicked so much ass at Yama's place, I took the liberty of designing our very own…"

His hands gripped the cloth very tightly, pulling the sheet off the object with one swift thrust. The object was revealed to be a grey spotlight. Fred pointed both of his index fingers at it, exclaiming "Superhero Signal!" as the sheet fell on his feet.

Honey clapped out of force of habit, Go-Go blew her bubblegum until it popped and Wasabi was less than impressed.

"Heathcliff, hit the lights!"

At Fred's command, Heathcliff turned off the lights with an ornate remote control as Fred imitated a drumroll. Then, at least no more than three seconds later, the light of the spotlight turned on in yellow glow and on the beam was "助けて" which meant "Help" in Japanese.

"You sure anybody will be able to read _that?_ " Wasabi asked doubtfully.

"We do live in a Japanese city," Fred explained. "And as a respectable Ainu, we must respect the Emperor's wishes."

And he said this by placing his right fist to his heart.

"Freddie," Honey snapped him out of his respectful state. "I heart your enthusiasm, but you got shot yesterday and almost died."

"So what? I can live with a few scars. And for the record, this is no way for Big Hero 6 to talk, so I suggest we have like our own secret handshake or something like…to the power of six!"

He held out his right hand, waiting for the others to put theirs above his.

"Come on, guys, you know you want to," Fred pleaded, his fingers twitching with each syllable.

But Honey, Go-Go and Wasabi stood where they were, perfectly still like statues. Go-Go spoke first.

"Look Fred, as much as I enjoyed being a superhero for the past year or so. It was a one-time thing saving you two shitheads from Yama and there are hardly any criminals out there that have the balls to challenge us."

Fred crossed his arms, almost mimicking Go-Go in an obscenely rude way.

"Wasn't stopping Callaghan and Big Boy a one-time thing as well?"

"To be politically correct," Wasabi admitted. "It was a two-time thing…not counting all the night patrols we went on."

"And that's it," finished Go-Go. "We don't need to be superheroes for the rest of our lives. We need our own lives to think about."

And so they left, for the third time leaving Fred to drown in the waters of disappointment. Another twenty minutes later, he ordered Heathcliff to take him to the Ito Ishioka Robotics Lab where Hiro was working on some additional modifications to the red chip he had created just one year before, including some grey shades of morality to prevent him from going on a killing spree. He was overseen by Baymax, Sora, Goofy and Donald as Fred rolled around the room in a yellow swivel chair.

"So the team is less than interested in a secret handshake. But I am not giving up, as a matter of fact, I think Big Hero 6 should be commercialized."

Hiro and the other could care less about Fred's thoughts. The modifications on the red chip were finished.

"Done!"

And he placed the chip into Baymax's fours slots with his right hand.

"I am now capable of self-defense with the proper morals as well as performing other heroic deeds."

That was all Baymax said as he pointed his left index finger in the direction of the ceiling before Fred offered his right arm out to him.

"To the power of six!"

Baymax, understanding this as a fist bump, curled his left fingers into a fist, and gently collided them against Fred's and pushed them into a fist, responding with the signature send-off as he twiddled his fingers away.

"Balalalalalala!"

"Not what I had envisioned, but you have definitely put your own spin on it."

As Hiro checked his 3D printer for some of the additional microbots he was cooking up, the lights in the hall came from the outside, which could mean one thing or two: Professor Granville and Miss Lane were making their nightly inspection before closing up the school. In a matter of minutes, the lab would be next.

" _Kuso!_ " Hiro whispered before raising his voice by notch. "We have to hide!"

But it was too late, the shadows of Miss Lane and Professor Granville had already reached the door, and opening it up, were surprised at the sight of Hiro, Baymax, Fred, Donald, Sora and Goofy staring at her in awkward action-esque postions. Professor Granville then turned on the light and asked.

"What are you still doing here? Miss Lane and I were about to close up the school."

" _Kawaisōde,_ " Hiro muttered, looking down, hands behind his back and rubbing the floor with his right toe by swinging it back and forth. His guilt was all he had to express, but Professor Granville could care less about his innocent façade and could only care more about his role for the remainder of the semester.

"Balance," as she said putting up a magnetic jar connected by two red wires to a generator. "is hard to achieve."

She demonstrated this by putting a washer head above the jar. Sure enough, it floated above the top by four inches, hovering ever so delicately that Hiro did not want to disturb it.

"Once tiny wrong decision and…chaos."

Professor Granville leaned down to the washer and blew a puff of breath, which spun the washer violently and swung up to the air and crashed into the very edge of the front LED lantern.

"Your brother did not allow himself to be distracted, he worked hard to build that robot. But since I am a rather generous woman, I can give you a choice: you can follow in Tadashi's footsteps or you can choose your own path."

"Now I wish I got the chance to know him more," Margo muttered under her breath.

Then the two women turned clockwise on their heels and walked out of the room.

"You might as well look on the bright side, Hiro," Sora comforted him. "At least she didn't punish you."

"My thoughts exactly," Fred added. "But I say we grab a couple of noodle burgers and get our night patrol on. Unless you want something healthier like Yaki Taco."

Hiro's mind went back to Professor Granville's words, wondering…to take Tadashi's path or his own. His head was confused as he tried to balance his self-consciousness going on the path Tadashi had given for him last year, which seemed like a wise choice or going back to bot-fights and delinquent-related activities; which was the immoral choice. But since it was apparent that he could never be an exact replica of his brother, he was at an impasse.

"Fred…I need to focus on taking the right path…I don't even think Tadashi would even want Baymax to become a superhero. He's better off as a nurse-bot."

But Fred was not about ready to give up just yet. His own mind was brainstorming with promotional material, the type of material that would be used to help attract visitors from all over the world to San Fransokyo. So while Hiro studied on his six textbooks, Fred worked on at least eleven sketches on a page of his notebook. One had the name of Big Hero 6 covered by an explosion, another his own Fredzilla costume, his mascot breathing fire, the name of the team on a scroll and two of them in box-shaped parenthesis had the number of the team name spelled out in letters. Hiro simply pushed the ideas away and discarded it with a negative shake from his head.

"You sure won't even consider about wearing your helmet again?" asked Fred during VR Class.

"Sorry Fred, nothing you say will make me change my mind."

Then another thirty-seven minutes later at Hiro's locker, Fred presented a pamphlet sized poster of Big Hero 6's logo, which Hiro almost instantly ignored and the final straw came when 7:34 arrived and Hiro was going to bed when a bright light came into his bedroom. Opening the shutters with his right hand, he saw Fred, in-costume with the "Help" spotlight across the street. Tired, he went back to bed and the following night, Fred moved the spotlight to Downtown atop the Hobart Building via elevator to the roof. A large majority of San Fransokyians noticed the signal's light at first, then moved on with their business. Some even took pictures of it and posted it on social media websites. Fred could only express dismay at his perception of the city failing to notice something so large and bright.

"So much for an answer," he sighed, letting his binoculars fall from his right hand to the street below.

* * *

In the art deco conference room of Club Ritz, with it's fireplace burning the oak wood logs until the morning would arrive, Texie and Ribs were drinking tall glasses of highballs. Ribs was sitting in Big Boy's seat while Texie sat on his right.

"Bless your heart," she said, taking the glass in her right hand after Ribs had poured it.

Ribs just gave her a smile and sat down to drink the first sip. Texie took a swig of the drink and looked back out at the window.

"Big Hero 6 continuing their business for the past year is such a bad sign for everyone out there, both on the sides of law and larceny. The police haven't been doing a lot of raids since they showed up and now the amount of discipline in the police department will be softened as well. Once he has served his sentence, Big Boy will be old and soft, so I think the time has come."

Ribs eyed Texie with close ears and what she said next, would add a new chapter to the history of the Apparatus.

"You know, someone has to take over. It might as well be me. Imagine it, Ribs. Me, the Godmother of San Fransokyo."

"I agree," Ribs nodded, taking another sip. The liquid went down his throat, embracing the alcoholic sins that it had to offer.

Then Texie asked out of the blue.

"Do you remember who was the youngest member of our cabal. Of last year, I mean?"

"Measles?"

Texie's blood red smile was as big as a butterfly's wings.

"That's him. He could be like a son to us. The classic rebel without a cause, unlike Tadashi Hamada who actually had a cause."

Ribs spoke next, concerned over Tadashi being mentioned.

"The one thing I don't understand, is that after everything we did for him and he did with us, why would he leave us just to let himself be killed."

"We were foolish last year…up until we found out that Callaghan was the one who pulled the trigger. And while Big Boy was the verge of achieving the crime of the century, they betrayed us. It's almost as if somebody had snitched to Big Boy that a fire would be planned and saw it as the perfect trap to bump off those turncoats."

And before she could say anymore, Texie felt a rumble. To confirm her oncoming fears, she saw the highball shaking every three seconds. The sounds seem to grow louder and the vibration of the highball seemed to grow violent at a hypertense rate.

"It's obviously coming outside," Texie uttered, her eyes turning to the left.

She and Ribs rushed over to the window, and what they saw drew a mix of fright, confusion and anger: An army of 150 Baymax skeletons were parading down Broadway Street, crushing, pushing and above all destroying everything in their path and one unfortunate mailman across the street was shot at by a ball of pink plasma energy from the right-hand palm of the leader, leaving nothing but a skeleton that quickly turned into ashes. Texie placed her fists to her hips and muttered loudly.

"What in the name of Alphonse 'Big Boy' Caprice is going on around here?"

* * *

Sitting down to dinner at the Lucky Cat, Hiro, Sora, Wasabi, Goofy, Honey, Donald, Go-Go and Fred were watching Action 7 News on the widescreen television monitor located above the left hand side of the counter. Bluff Dunder, a newscaster in a sangria colored suit with a white shirt, black necktie and square glasses over his grey-blue eyes with dirty blonde hair and pencil moustache, spoke rapidly and dramatically.

"Seemingly indestructible robots have invaded Night Market Square, annihilating everything in their path. Similar reports are occurring on Shimomoto Boulevard and all citizens are to be reminded to stay away from that area."

As he said this, three of the Baymax skeletons jumped from a billboard advertising Flakey's Explosive Flavor and jumped into the screen as it turned into static, apparently killing the cameraman. The audience watched in fear, but Hiro's mind quickly began to coalesce the identity of the very person responsible for this mass destruction.

"I should have seen this coming," Hiro narrowed his eyes. "It's the microbot theft all over again."

Donald was surprised.

"You mean Yama bootlegged Baymax?"

"That means Baymax has succumbed to the darkness in his heart," Goofy said to him.

"I would think of something else,' Fred added, snapping into action while gesticulating. "With all these killer robots loose in the city, I say this is a job for Big Hero 6!"

Go-Go was less than happy to continue her superhero duties. Her reply was:

"The police can handle this."

Then, as if the all-mighty All-Father had been listening to them, the screen switched to a close up of Detective Dick Tracy having gone through a hailstorm of blood and sweat.

"This is Detective Dick Tracy saying that we cannot handle this! And Tess, if you are watching, all I can say is… 'you're one in a million.'"

Watching this from the safety of their apartment, Junior and Tess watched with worried confessions in their hearts. She couldn't bear to lose her husband when she was expected to give birth in another three months. But this scene was all Fred needed to fully convince his teammates to continue on the road to helping others. Go-Go gave into this scene with a begrudging response.

"Fine, let's suit up."

"I'll get Baymax," added Hiro.

"And we'll go with you," Sora told him, with Donald flanked on his right and Goofy on his left.

Hiro seemed to acknowledge this before he and the three travelers dashed out of the café, followed by the remaining human members of Big Hero 6.

When the four arrived at the laboratory, Baymax came out of his luggage, acknowledging the four visitors without hearing any of them say the word "Ow". Perhaps Tadashi's encoded DNA was making him more human.

"You appear to be agitated," he greeted them, tilting his head to the right by five degrees. "What is the matter?"

"The city is under attack!" Hiro tried to be as serious as could, taking his cues from comic books that were darker than normal.

Baymax took two steps out of his luggage and tried to placate him.

"And you feel responsible for Yama taking your idea of duplicating me."

Hiro's guilt began to increase towards a strong level of angst.

"Easy for you to say, Baymax, you're a robot, you cannot even imagine how it feels."

A slumped doodle of a body appeared on Baymax's screen.

"No, but your body level and lack of eye contact tells me that you are experiencing guilt."

Then Hiro looked back at Sora, almost angrily and turned his head back to Baymax.

"If I hadn't forgotten to charge you before we left that night, none of this would have ever happened."

But as per usual, Baymax lifted his right index finger in the direction of the ceiling and said.

"Mistakes are common in human matters. Robots, as humans fit to see them and depending on common opinion, are completely flawless." Hiro found a flat silver credenza holding Baymax's armor in perfect shape. It almost seemed to Sora that another Baymax was standing in there before he, the dog and the duck realized that it was only the armor.

"Time to suit up," Hiro said.

And this time, Baymax deflated by at least fifty pounds in order to making the dressing easier for his master.

On Shimomoto Boulevard, an elderly couple hid behind a red Toyota as three of the exo-skeletons approached them and when it seemed like a Hispanic woman would meet her death from the shot of a plasma cannon, Go-Go swooped into the fray and brought her onto the sidewalk. Then she fired a right disk at the neck of one of the skeletons, which seemed to loosen its head as it shook in a field of purple electricity, exposing its wires.

After Go-Go retrieved her disk, Honey Lemon took over by throwing a cherry red chem-ball that turned ice blue and grew at a precise measurement of nine feet, picking up two of the skeletal Baymaxes and rolling them down the street.

Fred and Wasabi, using an upside down Jeep colored maroon as an impromptu trench, looked over at one of the Exo-Baymaxes facing the girls. Fred had an idea come to his mind.

"Wasabi, one of us has to be a decoy."

"You mean a distraction?"

"Actually, what I mean is—we need a flip point."

Speaking of such things, the Exo-Baymax grabbed a dark blue Honda and thrust it twenty feet into the air. It twirled at least eleven times before it landed on it's roof.

"I could have predicted it," Fred smiled from beneath the eye of his suit. "A flipped car always lands with its wheels up."

Wasabi and Fred went in opposite directions. Fred crawled away on the left while Wasabi rolled to the right, activating his plasma blades. The armor of the exo-skeleton was fireproof as Fred had found out for himself, so Wasabi's left hand blade decapitated the bodice of the skeleton which sent the upper half falling to the floor. The moment gave Wasabi the excitement that had been lost to him over the course of a year.

"I feel great! In fact, my adrenaline's pumping again!"

He stood up with both plasma blades glowing like the hero he was meant to be.

"Okay! Who's next? Bring it, bitches!"

As Wasabi fought off the robots while on his "adrenaline wave", Hiro placed front piece of the upper right leg onto Baymax. The bottom half of the soon-to-be warrior robot was complete.

"Are you sure we couldn't just help you?" asked Sora, who had been watching from the door for any sign of Professor Granville and Miss Lane.

"I am perfectly fine of assembling Baymax's armor on by myself," Hiro told him. "To me, its as easy as solving a puzzle. A puzzle that I can memorize."

"Do you feel any better now?" Baymax asked.

The sound of the doors being flung open by a strong, opposing force rang into their ears. Hiro had to investigate.

"Hold on, Baymax, Sora and I won't be long. Donald, Goofy; you watch over Baymax. I don't want our unwelcome guest to make any attempt at purloining him again."

Goofy and Donald stood by the doorway, watching Sora and Hiro disappear into the hall.

Tiptoeing their wait to the front of the hall, they could see Yama, flanked by three skeletons.

"You! Guard the door!"

The one on his left went off to obey his master's command while the other two on his right stayed to watch him operate a screen displaying a map of the robotics lab. It spoke in calm syllables.

"Welcome to SFIT Virtual Guide. This Saturday: Miraharu Woods Fun Run."

Yama, his patience growing thin, pushed another three buttons before Sora and Hiro felt a familiar touch of vinyl rubber behind their backs: Baymax with Goofy and Donald behind him.

"You were supposed to watch him!" Sora whispered.

"He wanted to help," Goofy tried to explain.

As they conversed quietly, things began to click for Hiro.

"Yama must have sent the other bots as a distraction."

He pulled out his Samsung Galaxy with his right hand from his hoodie pocket and called the others. It had been upgraded to provide radio contact with the team through their helmets.

"Guys! Yama broke into the school! I think he really, really, _really_ , wants that sculpture from Granville's office."

"Are you fucking kidding me?!" Wasabi shouted from the other line. "That sculpture is nothing more than a paperweight!"

"You should help us, Hiro!" came the voice of Honey.

But Hiro was determined to keep Yama from getting his way.

"No thank you, Baymax, Sora, Goofy, Donald and I will hold off Yama."

Turning over his right shoulder, Hiro spoke to Baymax.

"Time to be a superhero."

"Without the rest of my armor?" Baymax questioned.

"No time!"

They found the exo-skeleton guarding the door, it's back turned to them as they used the right-side corner of the hall as a vantage point.

"I'll take him out my staff," Donald quacked with a wicked smirk on his beak.

He extended his right hand and aimed the tip at the Baymax skeleton. His following command was loud enough for the bot to hear.

"THUNDER!"

A bolt of yellow lightning struck the head of the Baymax skeleton, slow causing it to turn clockwise at its attackers as it jolted and convoluted from the bolt. Slowly but surely, it walked in jagged steps and Hiro's Samsung began to ring. Hiding behind the corner, he answered it as Sora, Goofy and Baymax rushed into the fracas.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Hiro!"

"Aunt Cass? I'm kinda busy."

"Me too! The seafood market was _completely_ jammed, but I got the most amazing deal on butterfish! Also I just got on the train, so I should be home soon, okay!"

"Okay!"

And just like that, Hiro hung up.

Now it should be well known that when there is a great deal of dead butterfish in a bag, their odor is powerful that it creates a horrid smell and while Cass had a strong nose, her fellow passengers had to suffer a half-hour long ride by holding their noses.

Anyway, Hiro watched the fight from the safety of the corner. Baymax, locking his fists with his skeletal brother, turned it around, allowing Hiro to rush over, jump onto the skeleton's back and pull the wires of one yellow, two reds and two blues out. Surrounded by purple electricity, the robot's right hand began to rip through Baymax's vinyl body from the top of his stomach, metaphorically letting his intestines fall out. Seeing the damage done, Baymax looked over to Hiro with a suggestion.

"I am in need of repair."

But the exposed skeletal structure of Baymax only gave Hiro the idea that he could obtain the sculpture right under Yama's nose. And so, he pulled the rest of the skin off with both hands, leaving Baymax completely exposed as he was before.

Watching the events of Hiro's fight against the bots unfold from the safety of the Club Ritz windows, Texie and Ribs turned to face each other as it had seemed that she had a moment of brainstorming.

"Remember when Dubbs told us the location of Yama's hideaway?"

"Yeah, 1020 Pine Street. Why do you ask, Texie?"

Texie placed her hands together and formulated the plan out loud.

"This could be the opportunity we need to get my money back. After that, we can ensure that Dubbs won't turn his back on us."

Ribs was confused.

"You mean kill him?"

"No, I'll have either Hy or Danny watch over him. Let's take the car and go."

Leaving from their seats and with their respective firearms already loaded in their pockets and pocketbook, Texie and Ribs rushed down to the garage into Big Boy's blue Cadillac. Fortunately on their part, Yama had left the hideout unguarded, having relieved his human foot-soldiers from duty in light of his Baymax army being superior in comparison.

Close by, Honey had finished off the last member of the Baymax army with a pink chem-ball, encasing it into the substance. Then by pressing her right index finger onto the left shoulder blade, it dissolved into a magenta substance of smoke. She looked over to Fred and asked.

"You okay, Freddie?"

"Yes, I am, thanks to you. You may not see it, Honey, but underneath, there is so much winking going on in here."

Honey raised her right eyebrow by an inch, unsure of the authenticity behind Fred's words.

Back at the campus just outside of Professor Granville's office, almost every loose object was being ransacked by the Baymax army. A green swivel chair, a blue broom, a computer monitor, hairspray cans and other menial devices were all that Hiro and his cabal could see as they watched Yama and the two skeletons approach the office to the left of Granville's. Yama's left hand grabbed the door handle and shoot it with frustration. He needed that crystal.

"It needs a key card," he whispered.

Then his tone went loud as he snapped his left thumb and index fingers to signal the closest skeleton.

"Here's my key card!"

The skeleton's right arm curled into a fist, reached way back and pushed it forwards, knocking the door down.

"Search every nook and cranny!" came the second command before the two bots went in and Yama followed after them. This would be Baymax's cue to enter.

"Baymax," Hiro whispered to his brother's creation. "I need you to act like one of the bad ones."

Baymax, aiming his left index finger upwards, rebutted.

"I am afraid that is not a command I understand."

"Just do what they do and get the sculpture!" Hiro muttered calmly.

As Baymax passed Hiro on his way towards the office, Sora confronted Hiro over his left shoulder.

"You could have sent us, you know. We could have taken Yama out just like that."

He snapped his right fingers as he said this, but it seemed that Hiro had a point.

"It'll be easier this way. Baymax will grab the sculpture and we'll take it to Tracy for investigation, he'll know what is so special about it."

Baymax passed the office to find the two skeletons throwing out files, paperwork and manuscripts into piles behind them. Insecure, he rotated his head back to Hiro, whose left hand motioned for him to continue to the next room, which would be Granville's. Taking eight steps forward to the next door, Baymax looked back to Hiro, who nodded with a left thumb up and with his own right hand, Baymax opened the door without effort.

The door creaked open, bringing light into the darkness. Baymax's eyes gave a mint green twinkle as a scan ray from his photoreceptors scanned the left-hand side of the room and found the crystal on the desk. It stopped right there and with a match from his readout, he had found the sculpture, picked it up with his right and before he could turn…

"You! Weren't you supposed to be guarding the door?"

Yama and his skeletal bodyguards were standing before the door and before he could take great account into the lack of red in Baymax's eyes, he ordered the two clones:

"Never mind! Search the room!"

One took the left while the other took the right, knocking down the shelves and searching vainly for the crystal that was in Baymax's right hand. Knocking over the desk with the crystal, Yama walked to the right and the original Baymax began his trek to leave the room. The mission would have been successfully…if it had not been for the hardcover copy of Thomas Moore's _Utopia_ , falling on Yama's crown while he tried to search the bookshelf. Hearing the "OW!" Baymax was one foot away from leaving, when his duties of helping others above everything else came back to him. Hiro saw him turn clockwise back to the room and cringed as he cursed in Japanese.

" _Kuso robotto!_ "

As Yama smoothed his forehead with his right hand, Baymax took the opportunity to introduce himself.

"Hello, I am Baymax, your personal healthcare companion."

Yama turned to face him.

"I was alerted to the need of medical attention when you said 'ow'."

But as he said the final word, his right hand holding the crystal went up, exposing it in front of Yama. His face lit up as he craned his head ten inches closer to him and snapped his left fingers, ordering the robots.

"Kill him."

The two skeletons on both sides restrained him by the shoulder joints. Baymax, his head rotating left and right, knew that there was nowhere else to go.

"Oh no."

The two evils pushed him down to the floor, restraining him as Yama's left hand obtained the sculpture. Looking up to see Hiro and Sora standing before him in the doorway.

"Game's over, Zero!"

"The name is _Hiro_ , motherfucker! Get him, Sora."

Brandishing the Kingdom Chain in his left hand, Sora rushed in and before Yama could reach for his gun, he felt the teeth slamming into right cheek, knocking him and the crystal to the floor. A quarter portion of the sculpture shattered as it made contact with the ground, revealing a bright green glow. It's shining reflection marked Hiro's face. He leaped into the air by five feet, extending his right hand to reach the crystal…and he was three inches close to it when Yama did the same.

Their foreheads collided with each other as the movement of their hands pushed the crystal into the air, then like a magnet to a refrigerator, the exposed area of the sculpture found itself moving to the back of the exoskeleton restraining the Baymax on the left. It seemed to resist the crystal for a second or two before it exposed the network circuitry in the same color as the sculpture's interior. The eyes turned light green as well, taking it over as it delivered a right jab to Baymax's photoreceptors. With quick thinking, Baymax rolled out of the way. Then grabbing him by his neck, his evil twin, spun him around counterclockwise at a breakneck rate. After a second, it stopped and threw Baymax towards the window, which shattered into a hundred and eighty pieces upon impact and fell into the concrete below.

"Baymax!" screamed Hiro upon seeing this.

He, Goofy, Sora and Donald rushed over to Baymax, who was hanging from the frame by his left hand, intending to pull him back up.

It was fortunate for him that the Baymax twin that had been engulfed by the power of the crystal, became too much for it as the power began to leak into rays from its behind, it stopped, jolted, convoluted and its head fell off in the front. Then Hiro saw the rest of the skeleton's body kneel to the floor and fall front first. Yama picked the sculpture up with his right hand, taking in this newly discovered detail of a hidden treasure.

"No wonder he wants it," he whispered in a voice he hoped that Sora and the others wouldn't hear.

Satisfied with this reason, Yama turned counterclockwise to leave the room with the surviving Baymax skeleton.

Hiro was now torn between going after Yama and saving Baymax from a thirty foot drop to the pavement and Sora felt the same as did his friends. All four agreed that they would be successful in pulling Baymax back to safety as he said.

"This is not safe, if you do not let me go. You might fall."

Hiro strained to pull him back up; refusing to let his brother's creation die.

"But then you will fall too!" Hiro tried to reason.

His head went back to Sora and said.

"Ready? One, two, three. PULLLLL!"

The chain of living organisms, pulled the machine up over the balsa framework. First Baymax's head came to the other side, then his mid-section and finally his legs were resting on the overturned desk. Having fallen on their backs from the final thrust, Hiro and the others sat up just in time to see the rest of Big Hero 6 entering the school from the window.

"This seems like a positive outcome," was all Baymax had to say.

Honey, noticing Baymax looking over them from the window, urged the team to rush into Granville's office, taking them a half-minute to reach the others.

"So what happened?" asked Go-Go

"That paperweight of a sculpture seemed to have some type of source of power inside it."

Fred processed Hiro's words with his own thoughts.

"Whatever plot device the villain wants to get is never what it seems. Granville's sculpture probably has some untold power."

Wasabi almost found it hard to believe, asking.

"But why would Yama want it and why would Granville have something so dangerous on her desk?"

"To create the most powerful robotic army in this world," was Sora's guess.

"And the power Granville uses it for, is to hold down papers."

"We can come to the conclusions later," Hiro told them before leaving for Tadashi's lab. "Right now, we have to get that sculpture from Yama and see if Detective Tracy knows exactly what it is."

Once he was in Tadashi's lab, he reskinned Baymax, taped the damage on his body and found his purple suit in the closet that held the rest of Baymax's armor as Sora, Goofy and Donald went after him to help dress the robot. First he dressed in his jumpsuit, placed the right glove on as he strapped it around his wrist, changed his shoes, then the other glove, the chest and shoulder plates and finally, his helmet. After Baymax had inflated to the approximate limit that his armor could hold, Hiro removed Tadashi's cap from the desk lamp, holding in both hands as if Tadashi's own spirit had come to him like that.

"Don't worry, _nii-san_ , I'm going to set everything right."

So while Hiro and Sora raced off to find Yama, his unguarded headquarters were invaded by two unsuspecting guests.

Texie and Ribs had taken the elevator to the top, accurately assuming that Yama's office was there. Sliding the door open with both hands and turning on the light switch, they scoured the office, Texie taking the front and Ribs to the back.

"Where could Dubbs have put my money? I'll bet some of it is still on his person."

She wondered out loud as she placed her right hand on the left drawer of the desk before her. Pulling it open, revealed to be a pile of eight documents with Yama's signature on it…his assets.

"These could come in handy," she said to Ribs. "Got a pencil?"

Before Ribs could comply, she saw a black pall point pen with a white eraser in its rear right by the left of the documents.

"Never mind."

Her dainty hands began work on erasing Yama's name from each signature, first the insurance, then the deed, among other legalities before folding them into her pocketbook.

"What do you suppose the documents are for?" Ribs asked as they left the office.

"I figured I could pay Yama out by declaring ownership of his assets. Should anything happen to it, I will be the one to collect the insurance. All I have to do is show these documents to the company and the money is as good as mine."

But no sooner had they left when they heard pounding footsteps followed by the death throes of a cat crying out from being squished. Texie and Ribs plastered themselves to the wall as Yama came running through the water-logged alleyway, holding the iPhone in his left hand.

"This is not just an alloy! You could have told me!"

The voice on the other line, Obake, was calm in direct contrast to Yama's rapid-fire emotions.

"Why would I do that? You are nothing more than a dog fetching a bowl, bring me a bowl."

With the coast clear, Texie and Ribs raced back to their car as Yama stopped at the other side of the alley.

"I would love to," Yama continued before noticing the glow of the crystal in his pockets. "But I'd better go. Little Yama's broken!"

Flying from his Keyblade Glider alongside Baymax, Sora called Detective Tracy on his cell phone. It was fortunate that he still had his number from last year as a reward for the capture of Yokai. Holding to his right ear, he waited patiently for the reply, keeping his eyes on the path ahead of him.

"Leave a message," came the recording.

After the beep was heard, Sora spoke carefully into the receiver.

"Detective Tracy, if you want to catch Yama, you can find him at…"

"Scanning for Yama," was the voice of Baymax coming into his ears. "He is at Downtown Station."

"Downtown Station," repeated Sora before closing the phone. Luckily, Tracy had picked up his message while on patrol nearby and called the chief through his two-way wrist radio.

Baymax's readout also picked up the contents of the crystal in a very complexly written diagram. Hiro picked this up in his wrist computers.

"Nano induction."

"Could you please explain that?" asked Fred, hopping three times over to him.

"That's what's happening inside that sculpture. I could amplify anything electronic to a very dangerous level."

But he was even more horrified by the fact that Aunt Cass was on the el train, which was due to stop at the very spot where Yama was heading.

Onboard the train, Cass' strong nose compared to her unfortunate passengers only urged her to sing as she held the damp bag in her lap, her right leg crossed over the other.

"Butterfish…butterfish…"

"WOULD YOU SHUT YOUR FUCKING ASS!"

Cass turned to the afro in the bright yellow tank top and resumed her ditty at a very low volume.

Yama's breaths were huffed by the time he reached the station entrance. His right foot had just touched the first step of the escalator when there came a creepy voice, that was hollow, ghostly and godly.

"Yama…the spirit of justice awaits."

"What spirit?"

Yama initially believed that was reliving a scene straight out of _A Christmas Carol_ , in which a ghostly trio would put him on the path to an unneeded redemption…

But what he saw in front of him made his heart stop…

The figure that stood before him wore a black fedora with a long brim and a matching trench coat with gloves, boots and a cape that seemed to be of floor length. The only color found with in the figure was a blood red scarf that covered his mouth, his long nose extending over it and the rest of his face, most notably his eyes and eyebrows, were shadowed by the brim. The hilts of a twosome of bleached Colt 1911s could be seen in pockets on either side close to his elbows, yet he looked pretty menacing and a clear threat to the corrupted soul who ever dared to stoop far below the common morals that made humanity a decent kind.

Yama stepped back from the figure, his fears overcoming him.

"I don't know who you are, but I'm not letting you take this!"

When he said "this!" his right hand reached for the crystal and pulled it out of his pocket, holding it in plain sight for the figure to see. The figure just gave Yama a long, infectious yet evil laughter and drew his breath back in.

"You have no idea what that even is."

His left hand pulled out the Colt on that side and fired one bullet at the crystal, which broke off five pieces upon impact and Yama, losing his grip, watched it fall to the escalator. The sudden speed increased to twenty miles per hour and the figure disappeared into a cloud of grey smoke just in time to let Yama pass onto the train tracks. He watched it fly over his right shoulder and in the distance, it collided with the front grill of the el train. The express, glowing with green energy, rocketed through the station on a breakneck speed of 90 miles per hour. Seeing this, Yama rolled out of the way, letting the train pass him by and assuming that the figure was still there, hiding somewhere in particular, he ran down the escalator and through the entrance, falling before the lower half of a familiar yellow trenchcoat belonging to Detective Tracy. Yama, now seeing Tracy as an angel of mercy, stood up and grabbed him by the lapels of his coat, almost shaking the hawk-nosed, plainclothes detective out of his wits.

"Lock me up! Lock me up! Just get me away from him!"

He felt his wrists being cuffed by Sam Catchem, almost sighing in relief.

"Him who?" Tracy asked indignantly with his hands on his hips.

"He was all black and everything!" Yama's voice was genuinely frantic compared to the policemen.

"I'll see to that," Tracy gave him a sly smile before turning to his squad car and walking away from him. "But I hope you'll enjoy a week of prison food for turning yourself in."

The thought of prison food almost made Yama regret his decision.

Up above them, Sora and Baymax, with their compadres riding alongside them, hey spotted the runaway train zipping around a curve and down a straight line. Cass held on for dear life, hugging the bag of butterfish close to her chest. The electricity spawned a branch that connected to a titanium cable, bringing down one of the twenty wind turbines that provided clean to the city. Now, unless an insurance company would demand its reconstruction, there now about nineteen of them.

Baymax, Sora, Goofy, Donald and Big Hero 6, all flew above the third passenger car of the train, the train itself heading straight towards Central Terminal. Any minute and there would be a bloodbath of a crash. Hiro was not willing to lose another family member, so he ordered his commands:

"Go-Go! Wasabi! Cut off the engine from the rest of the train! Fred and Honey, you try to slow it down! Sora! You do the same!"

Donald looked over at Hiro, watching Baymax drop Go-Go and Wasabi from his left side before his eyes peered at the engine and he summoned his mage's staff.

"I know what to do…"

After carrying Wasabi on her back, Go-Go threw him onto the rear of the train and began to slide her way to the right side just as Donald fired a spell from the staff.

"STOPGA!"

Everything had come to a complete stop and it only took Go-Go six seconds to realize that the train was perfectly motionless. While it effected the passengers inside, those outside where unaffected due to not being within the spell's range. This gave Wasabi an opportunity to find his own courage and rush to the coupler connecting the passenger cars to the engine before the spell had time to wear off.

After running for a mere seven seconds, Wasabi looked down to find the coupling. His right hand activated the plasma blade and he leaped down to the rear platform, easily slicing off the coupling. Then, while preparing for the spell to die, he plastered himself against the passenger cars in a crucified position.

It did not take any longer than another twelve seconds for the passenger cars to resume their normal speed. Honey, holding onto the top of Fred, dropped from Baymax onto the track and shot a yellow chem-ball at the rapidly moving passenger cars. With shut eyes, Wasabi braced himself against being encased in a rubbery honey-colored substance that took the wind out of Aunt Cass, expressing the tantamount emotions excitement that a child would find after riding on a roller-caster.

None of the passengers were seriously injured, but a strong smell of butterfish hung in the air. Cas went over to pick up all eight of the fishes from her now disgruntled travelling companions, apologizing as she placed them back into her bag.

As for Hiro, Goofy, Donald, Baymax and Sora, they knew that they would be the only ones left to stop the engine, whose driver was in a state of panic to activate the brakes. When he saw the heroes, they would be the brakes for him.

Baymax landed on his hands and feet as soon as they were about fifty feet away from the engine, nearly a half-mile away from Central Terminal. The engine pushed into them ad Baymax used his own eight against it. Sora, from his glider, aimed the Keyblade at the damaged rear coupling and fired a chain hoping to at least slow it down by pulling it back with a chain. He did not have be a science major in gravity to know that pulling on it would stop the incredibly speeding engine.

The lights of Central Terminal grew closer and closer by ten feet each. Hiro holding his breath, held out his right hand and commanded it.

"Magno-locks on!"

A struggle of four seconds passed, then the crystal began to shake and soon it had stuck into Hiro's right glove.

At last the engine came to a complete stop just fifty feet before the terminal and all seemed to have become a complete success before the power of the crystal engulfed Baymax in green energy, holding him in a stasis position.

"Overcharge," he said before his right hand flew from his real one.

"Overcharge," then the other one.

"Overcharge."

With that final word, Baymax shot into the air, quicker before Sora, having retracted the chain could say.

"Hang on, Hiro. We'll save you!"

3,000 feet up, taller than any skyscraper or wind turbine, Hiro did not dare to let go of the crystal, grimacing before he grasped it with both hands, using the readout from his visor to perform a manual override.

"Reverse polarity!" was his command.

The crystal grew bigger, almost changing in shape from the way Hiro's hands motioned it back and forth before he let it all go and thrust it another 2,000 feet into the air. His vision was nearly blinded as the crystal expanded into a bright light that pushed him off of Baymax's magnetic back. Baymax's rockets also cut off and the both of them were sending their bodies back to Earth.

 _Looks like I'll be seeing you again, Tadashi. Unless something happens to me._

And it did…in the form of Sora on his Keyblade Glider. Hiro landed in his arms and move to the back of Sora with the glider rushing down to reach Baymax before he would shatter into hundreds of pieces upon impact. Sora aimed the tip of the Keyblade at Baymax's back and the chain spawned out of it. At a thousand feet, the chain whirled to Baymax's right side and wrapped around his bodice, squeezing it like a snake. The power of the glider proved it's worth and Baymax found himself hovering above the ground by three hundred feet.

"Sora, you were wonderful!" Hiro hugged his new brother-figure from behind.

Sora took this with admiration, he had gained Hiro's trust for the first time in a year.

They brought Baymax safely down after finding the four other members and a switcher had been sent to collect the depowered engine and the detached passenger cars. Wasabi peered to the girls, expressing his thoughts on the events that had recently taken place.

"We were this close to disaster today," he told them, making "ok" shapes with his hands.

"Fortunately, it wasn't," Go-Go smiled, her personality relaxed.

"Not to mention we saved the city," Honey's smile was as big as her friend's.

"I was right all along," Fred told them. "Together we can make a difference."

He extended his right hand out and this time, all the others, save Sora, Goofy and Donald, given their status as honorary members, joined him.

"To the power of six!"

The rest of the night passed quickly for Hiro having getting used to the pungent odor of butterfish for dinner, but in the morning, he found Professor Granville in her office, surveying the damage done to her property with Miss Lane.

"I wonder what could have happened here?" he asked the professor, feigning surprise.

"There are many unanswered questions," Professor Granville was peering into the base where her crystal should have been as Miss Lane took her own time to re-sort the bookshelf. The blonde teacher turned her head over her left shoulder to Hiro, who was approaching Granville.

"Can we help you in anyway, Hiro?"

Hiro faced the two women and gave his thoughts in a clear, condensing speech.

"I have been thinking about you have said about balance, Professor Granville, and I think it is time I forged my own path with Tadashi's. Tadashi found his own balance by taking risks, one of the last things that he said to me was that 'somebody has to help' and he will always be my inspiration. But since I am just a separate person instead of a carbon-copy like you would expect, I have to figure out how to exactly be my own self. To prove this, you may expect some mistakes from me."

Miss Lane gave Hiro a loving smile, but Professor Granville, as stern as ever, accepted the speech as fact before asking.

"You mean like impatient shortcuts and dangerous risks?"

"To be specific," Hiro replied sheepishly before going serious again. "Yes."

"Then it will be good for you," Professor Granville began to display a smile that was warm and welcome. "And for the rest of the year as well. Perhaps Tadashi's legacy will serve as a reminder for your mistakes."

And before Hiro even realized it, Miss Lane had pulled him into a bear hug, which took some five seconds for him to adjust before he wrapped his arms around her in return. Then, confident, inspired and motivated, he left the office and looked forward a brand new day.

* * *

Only one being stood before the light energy green monitors of his lair, watching Big Hero 6 in action the following night. Obake had been muttering the name six times as he stood before the controls. He was not alone, mind you, for he had help from a force that had connections with the supernatural (hence his name) and would seek audience with this ally by turning clockwise to the chamber behind him.

The chamber was large, but dark, with six pillars, three on each side, surrounding a rotunda that seemed to be about thirty-three feet in length, the floor being marked with a myriad of ancient symbols from Asian culture and mythology. Above Obake just after the other side of the circle, was a stained-glass window modelled directly after the type seen in the halls of Hollow Bastion. The window was round and had sixty petals of purple, mixed with red, blue and green surrounding a cross. It was lit by eight sets of white neon lights, bringing life and color into the chamber.

The only other light was in the middle of the room, shining off of a woman kneeling with shut eyes and her hands clasping a silver katana with a golden guard. The woman was clad in a nun's habit that was as white as snow, and her mouth was concealed by a matching balaclava that only exposed her nose, her eyes of blue purity and black eyebrows.

When Obake appeared before the nun, bowing in deep homage to her religious background, she spoke in a voice that was soft, yet it seemed to echo across the chamber in small vibrations. Obake did not dare to meet the eyes with his own, keeping his focus on his black boots.

"Sister Esclarmonde, I want you to know that—"

"I have already sensed it."

Still keeping his eyes to his boots, Obake asked in confusion.

"You have?"

"Yes." Sister Esclarmonde emphasized the danger as she continued. "Our situation is most precarious. We have a new enemy in our midst. Without a doubt, they and the young Keyblader are the same belligerents who had defeated Robert Callaghan in his successful attempt at purging the original Alistair Krei of his sins."

"Big Hero 6," Obake muttered for the seventh time that evening.

"In spite of their name, they do not seek the same route of vengeance and justice as I have done before. We must purge their souls into the afterlife or they will be our undoing."

Obake reflected for a moment. Perhaps there was a way they could use Big Hero 6 to aid their cause.

"Perhaps we could use them against our own enemies once the city becomes ours. They would make a powerful ally against the traditionalists."

Sister Esclarmonde considered the possibility.

"Yes…they would make a great asset when they see the mission of justice from my eyes. Can it be done?"

Then Obake took the moment to look deep into the eyes of the Light.

"They will join us, or we can kill them."

With that, the encounter had come to an end.


	2. Fred's Bro-Tillion

It had been quite some time since the Club Ritz had operated as a rock and roll joint. One such band, hired by Mrs. Topp's talent agency known as the Stereo Brothers, playing with May and June Summer as vocals, sung to the tune and lyrics of "Our Lips Are Sealed". Many people, approximately fifty of the city's local patrons attended, playing roulette wheels and chips, while some of them came merely for the food and entertainment. When the band finished, all fifty gave a large round of applause, and sitting in what used to be Big Boy Caprice's chair were Texie Garcia and Ribs Mocco, dressed in their finest attire. Smiling at the success of their performance, Texie turned to Ribs, who had been sitting on her right-hand side and said.

"Ribs, remind me to get Julie Marrlin if she's available."

"How about that Black Pearl gal? I hear she's as good as Breathless."

"Oh, who cares about her? She's better off as a jailbird."

"Jailbird" was her own way of describing a singer who made a recognizable career in prison and without warning, a mauve suit with a cream yellow tie and a black fedora came behind her. It had the Anglo-Italian face of a small moustache that only Texie's social circle could recognize as.

"Spaldoni! What an unexpected surprise," her face lit up at the sight of him before her mind saw only a lack of logic as to his presence. "When did you get out?"

Spaldoni kept a smile that would have been seen as unpleasant in the eyes of the law.

"About a month after the Lord Deathstrike business," came his reply. "Big Boy needed someone to represent me at his trial so the warden called my firm to let them know I was being let go. Ten minutes later, I'm a free man…as long as I don't go on the crooked path again."

"You have no need to worry," Texie shook her head seductively. "Lawyers are meant to be above the law."

Taking this as a rather satisfying compliment, Spaldoni walked along the right side of the table and sat down in front of Texie, his hands locked and elbows on the table as they conversed.

"Is it all right if we talk like this?" he asked her. "I mean with all this crowd and all?"

Texie narrowed her eyes, securing privacy for all three of them with a sly smirk.

"No, I highly doubt that anyone will be able to hear us over this din."

The din was nothing but chatter and games since the band stopped playing. Texie fluttered her eyelashes as a sign of perfect indiscretion. Before she could speak, a red suited waiter came with a bottle of Montoya Cabernet 2012, pouring at least 2 litres into their glasses. He soon left to attend to the other patrons and Spaldoni took the opportunity to speak.

"I heard you were very honest when you told Big Hero 6 about Yama. Let alone having the guts to steal some of his assets. In fact, it gives me an idea…"

Ribs did not dare raise his voice in case it would spoil Spaldoni's brainwaves when they were working at top capacity.

"I have seen San Fransokyo through power and business, just as much as Big Boy has. Before I got out of jail, he told me that the previous deaths of Tadashi Hamada and Alistair Krei, as well as the imprisonment of Robert Callaghan, despite his intended betrayal, would bring troubled times to the Apparatus."

Texie leaned closer, frowning in dismay.

"And he did not tell us that when he put that inane plan to get rid of all the perfect people into action alongside Lord Deathstrike?"

"He had no reason to upset any of you."

All three occupants of the table were still upset over Robert Callaghan's plot that only resulted in them becoming pawns of his revenge on Krei for his daughter's death. Texie, remembering the look on Big Boy's face when Hiro Hamada unmasked the man they had known only as Lord Deathstrike, tried to push it out of her head. Ribs, on the other hand, quietly sipped his wine and spoke out.

"Well, I think our business is just about as good as before we got drafted into his scheme."

"Actually," Spaldoni corrected. "Big Boy had made a wise decision to put all three of them in his pocket. Tadashi, Callaghan and Krei were the pillars of San Fransokyo while Tracy, the police and the city officials were just the extra support…and now that they're dead, everything will go out of balance."

Texie's eyes started to widen as she knew the answer. With the three barriers out of the way, and Krei's clone trying to repent the sins of his original host, the city was open to non-traditionalist criminals, something the Apparatus, in their view, deemed as unworthy of controlling San Fransokyo.

"Competitors?"

"Yes," nodded Spaldoni. "Big Boy's arrest will also contribute to the modernists trying to get their hands on our territory. Without him, the Apparatus in flux. If Yama ends up in control, it'll be nothing but bot-fights every Taco Tuesday. I don't think he has the balls to control the city. Compared to him, Big Boy was a visionary."

"Any other crooks I should be worried about?" Texie leaned her head forward by six inches, her face expressing a mixture of fear and doubt.

Now Spaldoni was getting worried as his smile began to drop by the second.

"Well there's Everwraith, I think he's a mystical, soul stealin' spirit sorta guy. Then there's this triple act called Gunsmith, Whiplash and Brute and yesterday I heard word that Mr. Sparkles made a rant online that he was…going crazy or something, I dunno. My memory's fading. Also, there's one guy I picked up on the wiretaps who calls himself Obake. I think he's a computer hacker or something. Seems to me like the old clock is ticking for us traditionalists."

"The old clock may be ticking for _you_ ," Texie pointed a vicious right index finger at his tie. "But your idea has become something of an interest to me."

Spaldoni recomposed himself, then he raised his own right index finger in the direction of the ceiling and his smile was plastered on once more.

"Oh, that's what I have been wanting to say! I sense a weakness of reliability with Big Hero 6. If we could use them to get rid of the competition for us, maybe, just maybe, we can take back control of the city just in time for Big Boy to get out once he serves his sentence. In other words, it'll be like a surprise birthday party."

Texie cocked her head to the left by six degrees in an odd moment of pessimism.

"And if they give Big Boy the death penalty?"

"Then we'll run things on our own, with the help of the old gang."

"And if Big Hero 6 loses our trust…if not find out our motives?"

Her voice was turning into something hesitant and suitably negative.

"Then we'll just have to kill them and Tracy too."

"Maybe, because I don't want to lose my sleep if they turn us over to the cops."

"You can sleep soundly tonight, Texie. I have just learned through the wiretaps that a guy known as Baron von Steamer is planning to steal some cash from a reception that's being held in a couple of nights. All we need now is Big Hero 6 to follow him to his hideout, put him in the slammer and we take everything he owns before the police can."

Texie chuckled mischievously.

"That guy is old and tired and ready to be taken out. And I can assure you Giorgio, that I will help restore the Apparatus to its former glory."

"Don't forget me," Ribs piped up.

Spaldoni's eyes met Ribs, then went back to Texie. The future of the Apparatus, as he was about to say, rested in her hands.

"Out of my deepest sympathies and respect to the both of you, I trust that if anything were to happen to Big Boy, this is what he would have wanted."

He raised the glass of red wine in his right hand and spoke in a grand tone.

"To the Apparatus."

The trio of criminals clinked their glasses together. Nobody in the crowd bothered to even look at them, they were having too much fun.

* * *

In the morning, the Lucky Cat Café was having a 5% discount on coffee prices and Cass had been wanting to serve as many customers as she could for the sake of saving up some spare change. Sora, Hiro, Baymax, Donald and Goofy came down just as Wasabi, Go-Go and Honey entered through the door, followed by Detective Tracy and Tess. Nobody had realized until at least some six minutes later that Fred was mislaid.

Hiro and Sora's group sat down to a round table where Cass served them a typical breakfast of ham, bacon, eggs and German sausages for breakfast. Sora, Wasabi and Hiro sat on the left with Baymax standing on that side while the girls and the animals sat down on the right. Dick and Tess, having already been served their cup of coffee, sat close to the window.

"Lucky Cat special!" sang Aunt Cass as she placed the last two trays down.

Honey stared lovingly at her meal: an egg whose yolk had been drawn in ketchup with two red eyes and a laughing smile, with the sausages representing the arms and the bacon for the legs. There were two of them to be exact: one for her and one for Go-Go. Donald and Goofy got the ham and scarfed it down in one gulp.

"They're so cute!" Honey squealed.

But Go-Go thought it looked ugly and embarrassing.

"I don't like my breakfast cute, especially when it looks like that."

Wasabi gave his brown eyes a deep, piercing stare into the reds that lasted for a whole second and whispered to Go-Go as if a Satanist coven had been observing them from afar.

"It's the eyes, isn't it? They follow you everywhere you go…. into your soul."

"But that is the way Fred likes it," Hiro argued in a civil tone.

Then he looked left and right three times after realizing that he was nowhere to be found, and Sora asked.

"Where is he, by the way? I was hoping I could ask him for any comic books to borrow."

As Hiro's attention went to Sora, Aunt Cass had gone over to the coffee machine to pour in a cup for herself from the middle dispenser and noticed its failure to comply when it had produced no coffee from either of it's three dispensers. So she slapped her right hand three times on that side, as she had done three months before during a bakery cookout. This had caused the machine to function again, but she not care one bit about the fact that it was at least ten years old.

"Come on!" she squirmed in anger and frustration.

Hiro must have sensed his aunt's temper rising, for he left the chair and walked over to her, stopping before the counter. He tried to be consoling as he asked.

"Maybe it's time we bought a new one."

But the anger had rose to fever point and Cass, not listening to reason, had grabbed the bottom end of a rolling pin with both hands and slammed it down on the top.

"I wish I could," she began.

Another slam followed suit.

"But they are too fucking expensive!"

She brought the rolling pin down a third time, which caused Wasabi to grimace in fear with slanted eyelids and he whispered to the girls and the animals.

"Remind me not to offer her a job at my place."

The others had looked on with complacent expressions of curiosity and when Cass was finished, the roof of the machine had been bent at a 10-degree dip and the dispensers were disjointed. Breathing, she turned her body back to Hiro and Baymax, her eyes not leaving the machine as she hoped to ensure that it was still working. It rattled for two seconds and finally poured the brown liquid into the white cup.

"There," she sighed, putting her hands to her hips. "Fixed."

But Hiro and Baymax knew too well over the possibilities of a malfunction as the contents poured over the cup and into the bottom. The sound of a light splash caught her off guard in fear and she jumped back against the barrier of the counter. Then, three puffs of steam began to hiss out of the punctured holes. At any rate, the machine would explode.

Baymax broke in the destructive sounds with his voice.

"I would suggest standing back."

The cap which held the heated steam in place shot from the machine at a speed much slower than the average bullet of a gun. It struck the brown wall and ricocheted towards Tracy's table, nearly scraping his left shoulder and causing Tess's frantic hands to spill her own coffee across her side of the table and down to her stomach. The cap returned to Honey Lemon, who ducked and Wasabi leaped to the door while Donald and Goofy cowered under the table and Go-Go did nothing but cross her arms and blow her new stick of pink gum into a bubble as she watched the chaos unfold around her.

The cap then struck the white maneki-neko, causing it fall to the floor in eleven pieces and Mochi, who had heard the crash, jumped to the ceiling with squeal. Then it returned to the round table where left a slash on the right-hand side bacon and eggs figure, the contents landing onto Baymax's face in a perfect mask of yellow yolk that covered all but his eyes and his mouth was obstructed by the left leg bacon.

"I will get it," he said raising his right hand.

He found the cap by his feet and picked it up with both hands and Hiro took it into his right.

"Maybe I can fix it."

Before Sora could offer to help, the machine began to quake and shake for another four and a half seconds before a burst of steam from the main frame informed everybody that the machine's interior was totaled. Cass surveyed the damage, watching the handle from the middle dispenser fall into her cup, resembling a straw.

From their table, Tracy noticed his wife's red and black dress stained with the contents.

"Are you all right, Tess?"

"I'm fine," she quivered as though she had experienced a shootout. "I just hope all the coffee didn't hurt the baby."

"It's fine, Tess. I can even pay Cass for another machine if she doesn't try to whack it again."

But Cass had her doubts on spending extra cash for a replacement.

"Can we still call it a coffee shop if it doesn't have coffee in it?" she asked Hiro and Sora.

The boys took this with a "No".

"It wouldn't be politically correct if it did," Sora explained. "We could easily get a new machine if we pooled some money from Donald's uncle's bank account."

Scrooge McDuck's supply of money was almost limitless, but the eggs were another story. On the dish was a splatter of white and yellow yolk that extended to the table with the right leg bacon by the bottom of it on the dish. The disturbance caused by the shook of the impact had literally turned the expression of the surviving figure upside-down.

"Fred's eggs did not make it," Wasabi shook his head.

Hiro just stared at the remains, imagine himself and Tadashi in that position, lost and alone in memory before a ring came from Go-Go's iPhone.

"Well, speak of the devil," she said holding it in her left hand.

Fred's profile portrait had his beanie covering his eyes as he made nasty claws with his fingers, a typical monstrous stature that disappeared once she hit the green phone button that mean to talk. With her thumb leaving the screen to the right side of the phone, Fred's head came into view, bearing a face of panic.

"GUYS, YOU HAVE GOT TO COME QUICK! IT'S AN EMERGENCY! NOW!"

Interpreting this as a job for Big Hero 6, the team members rushed to the garage except for Hiro, who told his aunt "We'll let you clean up from here," and left. There, Go-Go placed on her helmet after being suited, Wasabi with his gloves, Honey with her purse, Sora activated his Keyblade armor and glider and once Hiro and Baymax were fully suited, they took off at a 300-foot altitude toward Lee Mansion. Cass, having heard the muffle of the rockets from the inside after disposing of the damaged machine, closed her eyes and released a slow, yet intoxicating amount of distress.

 _You had better not be doing that superhero thing again._

It took them no more than half a minute to reach Lee Mansion at Baymax's maximum speed, not caring at all if any newcomers were to suspect who they were once they had gotten inside. When they did, the team took their battle stances, not noticing until five seconds of realization that they saw Fred on the tan colored sofa, wearing a royal blue bathrobe and towel with regal red edges on the sleeves, chest area and two cucumber slices covering his eyes. The bottom half of his legs were completely bare Heathcliff filed his left toenails as his left upper arm held a small white towel with golden edges. Poised like a transvestite undergoing transformation, he had number 16 of the original Teen Titans comics in his lap with five other issues lying directly against his right elbow. He did not even need to see under his slices, he knew the story by heart as any other comic book fan should know.

Standing up in their best, straightforward postures, Baymax told the others.

"This does not appear to be an emergency."

"Unless if Fred means something else," Donald looked up to him.

"Actually," Fred said, resting his left foot down. "That was two things: a hangnail and…"

He sighed, removing the cucumber slices and setting them down on the left-hand side of the couch, plopping his head down.

"It's my Bro-Tillion," he mourned in a hopeless voice.

Heathcliff offered to explain the situation to the costumed guests.

"A portmanteau of brother and cotillion, where Master Frederick must socialize with San Fransokyo's elite in a grand gala formed in his honor."

Fred stood up, walking around Heathcliff counterclockwise as he gave his own explanation.

"Translation: I have to go some stuffy party where I have to dress up in a goddamned penguin suit and talk to snooty people about things that I am not even interested in. Then there is…"

He cringed before breathing the word.

"Binky."

"I do not have any data on Binky."

Baymax blinked twice as he said before he turned to the source of another voice that came in the direction of his right shoulder.

"Beverly Samantha Mole!"

It was Joan Lee, Fred's mother. She had autumn red hair, brown-grey eyes and had an hourglass figure. She wore pearl-white earrings (they were more like round disks than pearls to be honest) and wore a white top held by bronze buttons at the end of each shoulder with a velvet red skirt and earth-brown slippers. She and Stan first met at a comic book art studio back in New York where she worked as a hat model. When he did, Stan called her an exotic lady, but instead of feeling offended like she was supposed to have been, she just chuckled and the two hit it off right away. Despite her wealth, Stan thought that Joan meant more to her than money and asked her to be his bride. She immediately accepted, they got hitched and moved to the cleaner San Fransokyo to escape NY's crowded streets and polluted air. About a year after that, she gave birth to Fred. Stan and Heathcliff both agreed that Joan could bring Fred upright (in a proper way that they had never imagined), but to Fred, she was the closest thing he had to a real-life example of Ruth DeWitt Bukater, Rose's indifferent mother played by Frances Fisher in the film _Titanic._

Joan came into the room with a measuring tape, hoping to find a suit that could fit both Fred's exact height and weight, continuing to describe Ms. Mole, who was fortunately not related to the criminal Mole that Big Hero 6 had to deal with last year.

"Reigning queen of San Fransokyo's high society. To be honest, she is rude, arrogant and…"

She tried to find the words as the others stared at her. But Heathcliff interjected with his own remarks.

"Quite an insufferable bitch."

"Language, Heathcliff!" Joan wagged her right index finger at the butler. "I know she may not be down to earth like me, but everything must be perfect. Right, dear?"

And she said this while measuring Fred's hips, left arm and forehead, wrapping it in the shape of a bandana. Fred's eyes went wide, expressing pain from this relentless conditioning as he stood in a crucified position.

"Right, Mom," he replied, turning his head to her.

As soon as he left the room, Go-Go removed her helmet and asked curiously.

"What does your Mom care what this Binky lady thinks? Is she like your fiancée or something?"

"No way!" Fred scoffed. "She's my mom's best friend! But I haven't been much of a good impression in front of her. One time when I was young and foolish, I hand painted a landscape of the Grand Canyon. In my defense, the concept of priceless art was still a bit new to me. Then there was the monkey incident when I was eight, they looked up to me as their leader, I felt sorry for them, so I decided to let them out. The gatekeeper caught me and I was grounded for a week. Then, about a year before Tadashi died, I decided to take a thrill ride on Binky's yacht, but somehow, it went out of my control and it crashed into the building. The boat didn't sink fortunately, but thanks to that, I have been banned from the yacht club for life."

The others listened with open ears, wondering what they could do to help before Fred added.

"Which is why you guys have to help me. I can't let my Mom down again. I need you to help me become a proper gentleman whose got to be all prim and stuffy by Saturday."

"This Saturday?" Wasabi asked, admitting confusion.

"We can do this!" Honey cheered as she mostly did for the largest portions of her life.

Then she stood up, giving Fred the confidence that he needed.

"Your mom has already taken care of personal grooming and wardrobe so what is next on the list?"

"Preparing for the moment I fear more than anything."

Fred clasped his hands together, trying to compose himself as he said the next word.

"Dancing."

"Oh come on," Go-Go groaned. "Dancing can be fun."

"And I've danced a lot of times without practice," Sora interjected. "But then again, we're going to need a master for this situation."

"And I know exactly what to do," finished Hiro. "Baymax and I will be back in half-an-hour."

And without even going near Aunt Cass, Hiro and Baymax removed their armor inside the garage, left them there, and searched Tadashi's part of the bedroom for his collection of Breathless Mahoney music videos that he saved as nothing more than reminders of his time with her under Big Boy's thumb. Then they went back to the garage, and Hiro found a purple chip. Swiping the music videos and informational texts on the dance movements into the chip from his computer, Hiro placed it in the third slot of Baymax's compartment and gave the soon-to-be dance master a cute little fist bump from his right hand.

Returning to the mansion, Hiro held his arms out like a model when he said.

"May I present: dance-mode Baymax!"

He sat down on the sofa with the others and Baymax lifted his head up and down four times.

"Five, six, seven, eight."

And the instrumental tune of "Stompin' the Bug" by Fats Waller began to play the minute his voice disappeared entirely. He placed his right foot to the right, his left foot to the left, right again, left again and pretty soon he was dancing as timidly as the Lady in the Radiator from _Eraserhead_. Then suddenly, he stopped, extending his fingers out and the song segued into "Flower Duet from Lachme" by Leo Delibes. Like the petals of a flower, he gracefully waved his arms to his left and rose them up as he lifted his left foot, standing in the accurate pose of a ballerina. Baymax then took his left foot forward, still holding his right arm up with his left extended and traveled five feet on tiptoe where he turned clockwise and walked backwards. Then he spun and changed the tune to "Scotland's Story" by The Proclaimers, bouncing up and down with twiddling fingers that lasted over a minute before he swooped over to the rear of the couch and crouched down on his hands. Shooting up from behind her, Baymax surprised Honey Lemon when he changed the music in his audio box to Breathless' cover of "We Are Not Alone" from _The Breakfast Club_ as he started to do the watusi, bringing his arms up to the level of his eyes and, placing his index and middle fingers in scissors position, moved them away from his eyes.

Finally, he did the robot. Baymax started by placing his left arm up, hunched over by placing his upper right arm up while the left one went down, spread-eagled his arms, placed them up, placed them down, shook his head left and right, placed his right foot in, wobbled his right arm, then his left, placed both arms up and lowered his head as the arms pointed north, finishing the dance in a 180 degree turn to the left.

Go-Go found it hard to please.

"The robot," she sniffed. "How ironic."

But she did not find it ironic when Baymax changed his audio to I Salonsti's cover of "Wedding Dance" and pulled Fred into his arms, not for a hug, but for a waltz.

"Your arms go here and here."

Baymax placed Fred's left arm in his right hand and the right arm to the left side of the waist.

"This is kinda nice," Fred muttered as he buried his face into Baymax's softy, squishy chest.

"I will lead. Ready?"

Fred's eyes went wide, Baymax's voice catching him off-guard as he felt his right foot go up, followed by it going back down and forcefully stepping with Bamyax's movements as he gave the instructions.

"Side, close, step."

Then the automatic doors opened to reveal Joan trying to catch her breath.

"Bad news everyone. Avalanche on the family mountain, your father is leading the search party."

"So does this mean the party's off?"

Joan's face scrunched at her son trying to be the fool that he had always been.

"Don't you dare even joke about that."

Then Heathcliff came out of the blue on her left side.

"More terrible news, madam. The caterer has cancelled. They have exhausted their resources due to incompetent employees."

Joan tried not to go into mass hysteria as her hands gripped Heathcliff's lapels.

"That can't be. Did you tell him I would pay them obscenely?"

"Of course," Heathcliff reassured her.

But it seemed that, along with the employees, something else was interpreted in their minds: a licentious one. Clasping her hands together, Joan and Healthcliff turned down the hall, the doors closing behind them.

"We have to find another caterer or everything, including myself, will be ruined!"

Hiro's brainwaves, accelerating to a high altitude, had just the idea needed to save the day.

"I'll be right back," he told Sora before leaving the room.

In the kitchen, which had an Imperial styled decor, Joan was pacing back and forth, cradling her iPhone 12 in front of the Carrera marbled counter while Heathcliff watched her distress coming right out of her mouth.

"All the best carters are preoccupied with weddings, funerals, bar mitzvahs, birthdays, holidays, the works. What can I do?"

"Maybe I can help," Hiro came in from behind.

"How?" Joan was doubtful.

"I just happen to be related to a hot new caterer. My Aunt Cass is an undiscovered gem. She's exciting, hip and on the cutting edge of catering."

"Me, on the cutting edge?" Joan had a dreamy look in her eyes. "That would make Binky's blue blood boil until she suffers a hemorrhage. Hiro, you my dear, are a lifesaver!"

And she gave him a quick hug before leaving to attend to the decorations.

"Guess what, Aunt Cass, you're gonna be able to buy that new expresso machine because you're going to be the caterer for Fred's Bro-Tillion."

"A Bro-Tillion?" Aunt Cass seemed unfamiliar with the concept. "What's that?"

"Just a fancy party with the city's upper class. Nothing more. I'll give you the list of eateries on the way home."

He returned to the bedroom to find that Baymax had a new partner: Sora, who was dancing like a professional, which made Fred look like a wallflower who had been rejected, if not unneeded.

"This dance is hopeless," he sighed.

"Do you know who else thinks who can't do it?" Hiro pointed his right index finger at him. "Binky Mole. Are you going to let her be right? Or are you going to be on the cutting edge of dancing?"

"On the cutting edge," Fred replied slowly.

"The point is, you need to show Binky what you are made of, that you are Frederick Lee IV and you are not afraid of anything!"

"Except spiders," Fred scrunched up his nose. "Especially tarantulas. I can't even watch _Home Alone_ because of that ghastly grotesque."

But he plastered a brave face and extended his left arm out to Baymax.

"Get over here, Mr. Marshmallow. We're gonna waltz now!"

Baymax and Sora brought their dance to a complete stop and the robot gripped Fred's left wrist so tightly that he was flung into the abdomen of the squishy exterior.

Sora and Hiro left the room, wondering to each other.

"You think it will work?" he asked Hiro.

"If it worked on Eliza Doolittle," Hiro told him. "Then Fred will a lot more than just your average diamond in the rough."

* * *

As the preparations of the Bro-Tillion took place over a week's course, things were transpiring at the Club Ritz on Thursday night. Texie was in the conference room with Ribs and Dan Mucelli, sitting in Big Boy's seat with Ribs on her right and Muecelli on her left. Their faces were expressing the pondering question that had taken hold of their minds since Spaldoni's visit: who was going to spy on the gala incase someone outside of the Apparatus was going to rob it?

"According to Spaldoni's latest updates from the wiretaps, the Bro-Tillion is in two days. Is there any member of the Apparatus who is NOT in prison?"

Ribs and Mucelli searched their brains after Texie made her spiel, then Ribs opened his jaw when the first person came to his head.

"How about Lips Manlis? I heard that Spaldoni managed to get him out a while back for good behavior. His reputation is easily redeemable considering he knows a lot about and mingles a lot with the upper class."

"Perhaps," Texie drew some doubt into Ribs' words. "But I need someone whom Big Hero 6 is unfamiliar with. Even Tracy knows his face."

"What about that nephew of yours?" Dan asked out of the blue.

"You mean Ed?" Texie put on a puzzling face. "I haven't seen or talked to him since he moved to Vancouver."

Ed was the son of Texie's estranged younger brother who had brown wavy hair, emerald green eyes to match his clothes and rectangular glasses and even though he was aware that his aunt was an associate of Big Boy Caprice, he was a confident young man who believed that he could manage without her help (even though there were times where he would think twice before considering it). He had lived in Vancouver even before the Emil Trueheart case as his father and mother wanted to look for greener and safer pastures, away from Texie's criminal conundrums. He had found company in the traditionalist criminals Flyface (who often had a family of six flies buzzing around his head due to a pungent odor) and Willie the Fifth (who wore a brimmed fedora to cover his eyes, while the number "5" that was written on his black necktie, proved to be his second most striking feature). Together, they had co-operated to committing various crimes together, with Ed taking the lead, though he was generous enough to let his associates take the lead on several occasions.

Dan, having some knowledge of Ed, pressed Texie with her nephew's most famous crime.

"You told me he is good at espionage, like the time he stole an experimental laser weapon from Diet Smith Industries."

Texie fluttered her eyelashes at the memory. She whipped out a Samsung Galaxy from her purse and dialed +1-604-753-5234. Placing it to her left ear, she waited three seconds for the reply.

"Hello, Ed."

"Hey, Aunt Texie. How's San Fransokyo?"

"Fine. But listen carefully, I've got a job for you. A special job that involves Big Hero 6. And make sure you bring Willie the Fifth and Flyface with you. The Apparatus can always use some special help, even if they're the friends of my _special_ nephew."

So Ed booked a flight for San Fransokyo that was due to leave the next evening. He called up his associates and the three of them were riding first class on the left side view of a Boeing 800. Once they arrived, Ed gave his aunt a quick hug and she allowed them to rest in the apartments above the club. The details of the plan came the following morning.

Hours later, the Bro-Tillion was in full effect. The entrance of Lee Mansion was lit by a pair of spotlights rotating back and forth, attracting wealthy patrons from all who could see it. Two chandlers, decorated with over a hundred and fifty Swarovski crystals shined the floors and illuminated the ceilings. The centerpiece of the main hall was a ten-foot ice sculpture of Fred who wore a toga. His left hand was fisted on his chest and his right hand was behind his back. Above the foyer was a 20-foot portrait of Fred from a half-profile view in his suit and beanie. On the right-hand side of the stairs, a pianist was playing Schubert's Piano Quintet in A 'Trout' 2.

In the kitchen, with its silver steel walls that bore a sterilized appearance, Aunt Cass was placing the last touches on the cookie crafted panda bears. Two black ears that brought her hard work and concentration to a well-deserved end. Wearing a white apron above her street clothes, she admired her work of five panda bears, six cucumber finger sandwiches, seven truffles and eight cream colored kittens, all of them on a silver platter.

Honey came up, dressed in a white top with a black skirt, black shoes and a clip-on black bowtie which was part of the required uniform that she and the other had to wear to make a professional impression on Fred's peers. Even Baymax had a black tie of his own, though it was a natural one that originally belonged to Tadashi during his nights at Club Ritz and was wrapped around his neck, as he feared that any puncture from the clip would have caused the air inside him to escape.

"A panda," she geeked to Go-Go who was rolling in from her left. "I mean, look at his little face, isn't he cute?"

Go-Go, not caring about the rules of no gum being allowed in kitchens for similar reasons involving school, just popped the pink bubble and let it plaster her mouth as Honey continued, pointing to the top panda with her left index finger.

"I named this one Parker, after Peter Parker, while the other one is Rodrigo. Aren't they adorable?"

But Go-Go lifted the plate of truffles and tried to score a point against her sunny exterior.

"Honey, don't get too emotionally involved with the hors d'oeuvres."

"Yes."

They arrived alongside Hiro, Baymax and Wasabi. Aunt Cass did the briefing.

"All right, guys, get out there and circulate. Leave no mouth without an appetite, no hand without a beverage and most of all…have fun."

She handed plates of seven pandas to Hiro and Baymax. Sora, Goofy and Donald, who remained dressed in their casual clothes, had already helped to prepare the food, but Sora took his time to ask.

"So what do we do?"

"You three stay with me and help me pass out some cards. I'm sure you'll find _someone_ to socialize with."

Then, after saying this, Aunt Cass turned to Hiro, winking her right eye at him.

"You and Tadashi would have looked so cute in those outfits!"

Her voice was so low and inaudible that only Hiro could tell what she was saying. He gave her a cute smile and walked his way into the hall. The others followed him and Hiro opened the door to a crowd of 145 guests and dignitaries. As such persons often do, they paid little mind to the people who were serving them, perceiving them as nothing more than average persons who had nothing better do to but serve and obey to feed the avarice of their hungry hearts and stomachs. Hiro held the tray above his head and the first person he was able to serve was Jim Brandon, the former police chief who had been invited on Tracy's behalf. Both of them were wearing black suits with white shirts and black neckties.

"How are you, Hiro?" Brandon asked.

"Doing well," Hiro replied. "Sora's back in town and I've just started my semester year."

Then Brandon frowned at the sounds of air hissing near the kitchen and so did Tracy. The detective looked up to see Baymax growing thinner at a slow rate in hopes of getting past the crowd.

"Isn't that your robot?" Tracy asked Hiro.

Hiro looked over his left shoulder just in time to see Baymax having deflated himself to a feasible width.

"Yes it is."

Over by the second pole by the stairs on the right side, Honey was holding out her own tray of pandas to a man in a black suit. He had greasy black hair and did not seem to turn until Honey spoke.

"Hello, sir, can I interest you in a cute panda or an adorable kitten?"

"I don't do animals, just fish."

The man turned counterclockwise by 150 degrees, revealing himself to be none other than the fish-faced Lips Manlis, who had been Big Boy's confidante and a supporting member of the Apparatus who encountered Honey and her friends last year. Honey was startled on the inside, but outside she was civil and tried not falter her smile.

"I can't believe they let you out of jail," she muttered, hoping he wouldn't hear.

"Big Boy, his attorneys and I were very close. At least I don't have to suffer the remaining nineteen years like he is doing currently. You should appreciate me, young lady, for my reputation is easily redeemable."

And his right hand removed a panda from the tray. He plopped it into his mouth, letting it melt once it had entered his throat.

"Parker…" was all Honey could say as her smile dropped to a frown.

"Told you so," the voice of Go-Go came from behind her.

Ed Garcia, arriving in a tan Prius with his comrades, peered his eyes for any sign of the criminal his aunt had mentioned to him. Hungry, his eyes stopped on a tray of pandas being served by Wasabi. He took one with his left hand and was just abut to leave when Wasabi's voice butted in.

"Uh, uh, uh! Don't forget your napkin!"

And just like magic, his left hand produced a white napkin with a grey trim. Ed took it, nodding.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome."

Wasabi turned away to find other guests.

As Aunt Cass, Donald, Sora and Goofy moved in-between the doors, ready to give out business cards, Baymax's concerns on the health and safety of the guests proved to be upsetting as he had told a brown-skinned woman in a plum purple dress and choker named Akela.

"Hello, I am Baymax. Your recent rhinoplasty is approximately 73.9% healed."

Shocked, Akela held her nose with her right hand and turned to her husband, a Caucasian male named David.

"I thought you said it wasn't obvious!"

Before David could protest, the sound of a microphone's feedback brought everyone's attention to Joan, who was standing from the top of the stairs in a magenta dress.

"Good evening, everyone and thank you for coming. It is with great pride that I introduce the bro of the hour, my son: Frederick Lee IV."

She clapped followed by the rest of her peers, watching Fred holding his left elbow with his right hand. It almost seemed that he was squirming uncomfortably. He cringed at the applauding crowd and his eyes caught a young woman in her 20s with brown hair wrapped into a bun, a beauty mark under her left eye, dark eyebrows, dull grey eyes and a navy-blue cocktail dress.

"Binky!"

His arms grabbed for Baymax, who was serving the last of his hors d'oeuvres to two men and a ginger-haired woman in a white dress. The sudden pull caused the empty tray to fall from the robot's hands.

"Baymax, I forgot the steps! Could you help me out?"

Baymax gave his diagnostics.

"Your symptoms indicate acute anxiety. I recommend deep, calming breaths."

And Fred did so, wheezing one breath after another as he plastered his left hand against Baymax's chest for support. Baymax could have assumed that he was suffering a panic attack, but it was not as worse as what he added.

"Now you are hyperventilating. Breathe into this."

Happy to have his left arm function as an impromptu breathing bag, complete with an open hole in his palm where the defibrillator would be, Fred huffed his breaths in and out, turning Baymax's arm from overly muscular to average. Perhaps he had overdone it, for it seemed as though as a giant earthquake had hit the city and was causing the whole interior to shudder violently.

"It's not working!" Fred panicked at the vibrating chandelier that twinkled like a windchime above the guests. "It feels like the whole room is collapsing upon me!"

But the rumbling was too small for an earthquake, let alone a mini-quake and only Lips and Ed knew what it was.

A golden drill had rose out of the ground, shredding a nearby patron, a dark-haired man in a black suit, into ribbons of blood that splattered onto the top walls. The others, not wanting to end up in his place, ran out of the way. The drill was no more than the size of a tank and it stopped to let the sound of screams fill the driver's ears from the inside.

"Guys!" Hiro ran to the safety of the staircase. "What is that?"

Three rivulets of steam came out of the drill and opened up in three sections to produce even more steam. The steam dissipated three seconds later, to reveal a 76-year-old man with a Confederate Army uniform (Union Blue) and an assortment of 19th century steampunk technology. In his right hand, he held an orange ray gun with a golden mechanical right arm of three pincers and a fat, sturdy jetpack shaped like a bullet held by brown straps. The most striking feature of the man was his large automaton-like monocle, which covered his right eye and the plating protected his face on that side. The man in question tried to be as dramatic as he could with the way he spoke from his white beard.

"San Fransokyo, it is I! Baron von Steamer!"

 _So that's the guy._ Ed said to himself.

He motioned his head over to Lips, who delivered a quick nod. The others were shocked, but curious over this stranger that most considered to be a pre-traditionalist. Honey and Go-Go shrugged, Tracy reached for his black Colt 1911, Sora and his animal pals readied their weapons and Hiro, Wasabi and Aunt Cass were just plain confused.

"I was a very…well known villain back in my day," Baron von Steamer gave his arms out.

And just like that, he set his ray gun to a soft, harmless spray of steam, covering Binky from head to toe. When she reappeared, her bun remained in place for two seconds, then covered her eyes. Others took photographs and made discreet whispers that he was a mental case.

"Doesn't anybody remember?!"

Steamer's cries fell on deaf ears…but not for long. Joan tried to save the day by speaking into her microphone.

"This is a private occasion, sir. I suggest you leave, immediately. You do not have an RSVP."

"Of course I don't have an RSVP you dumb bitch. I didn't bring a guest either, but I am taking one…Frederick Lee IV."

And instead of expressing excitement like he was supposed to be, Fred was enthusiastic.

"Does this mean I won't have to dance?"

Before Wasabi could say anything else, Baron von Steamer had set his ray gun from harmless steam to lethal spray, to which he began shooting at three men and two women, all of whom disintegrated before his eyes. This lead everyone else to believe that he was a very serious threat and ran to safety out the door, including Ed.

Aunt Cass, knowing that the three foreigners would be there to bodyguard her, stood her ground and held out a business card to a parting man.

"Here you go!" she said before offering another in her right to a ginger-haired woman.

"And one for you! Lucky Cat Catering! Tell your friends!"

Then once the last card had been extracted from her grasp, she escaped to safety outside, with Goofy, Donald and Sora following her.

"I have seen enough," was all Binky could say to Joan before she left as well.

"Binky, wait! There is a good explanation for this."

Once Joan was out of harm's way, Fred's dreamy-eyed gaze focused entirely on Baron von Steamer shooting at the escaping civilians. Ed and Lips hid behind the pillars, not daring to breathe.

"Wow, a supervillain crashes my Bro-Tillion and saves my life. How ironic."

Wasabi just grabbed his right arm with his left hand and dragged him down the stairs.

"Now's not the time for fanboying! We've gotta get you to safety."

"Protect Fred!" Hiro ordered the girls.

But Tracy tried to step in.

"Not to worry, Hiro, I'll take care him!"

He pushed the ex-Chief Brandon towards the door to safety and unsheathed his black Colt. He fired three bullets, but the armor proved to be bullet proof despite its iron-esque appearance and this was the distraction needed for Go-Go to spill the contents of her tray. She launched it from her right hand like one of her two disks, only to be caught in the metallic right hand of Baron von Steamer. The pincers bent the sides, leaving the middle intact and he threw it at Tracy's abdomen, forcing him to the ground.

Then Hiro joined the fight using his ninja skills. His hands grabbed a full house: three forks and a pair of spoons. He shot them at Steamer, who had disappeared into white smoke. When Go-Go caught up to him, the smoke began to move over to Baymax.

"Scanning."

The smoke disappeared before he could take action as Honey had grabbed a white tablecloth and blew it at Steamer. Annoyed, the baron blew his lethal smoke at her before jumping out of the way. Now she and the others were regretting that they did not have their gear with her.

"Steam is hazardous," Baymax tried to console the angry villain. "It can cause third degree burns."

The baron shot Baymax a pathetic look.

"That is the ambition of the weapon, you goddamned piece of irritating shit."

He fired the gun at Baymax, which blew the robot away in a cartwheeling position toward the stairs. The steam then laid its focus on Fred's ice statue. Within three seconds, the face of the statue seemed to come to life, expressing a horrified look as it melted all the way down to the floor, turning back into an eight foot puddle of water.

"A bro should not have to see his own ice sculpture melted," Fred glared from behind the piano.

"I'd rather you not look at it."

And that was all Wasabi had to say before his right hand pulled Fred back from the grand piano that Baron von Steamer's human left hand shoved out of the way. Then he had managed corner Fred and Wasabi by a pair of doors that the security guard had foolishly locked before escaping.

"Ah, young Frederick. You have grown since the baby child you presumably were at young point."

Von Steamer, being a 76 year old so to speak, seemed to be on the precipice of a very mild case of Alzheimer's disease or just plain doddery, for his eyes were trying not to lose their strength as he was searching his memory for the exact description of the Frederick he had seeked.

"Have you two met?" Wasabi moved his lips to Fred.

"Do you think I would have remembered?"

Before anything else could be said or done, the baron's gloved left hand pulled out a piece of paper that was blood red on the back. But on the front that Steamer was inspecting, was a comic book cover of Boss Awesome in yellow italic letters. A muscular man in a black bodysuit, red gloves, red and blue armor plates, red boots, underwear strapped by a pale-yellow belt and dull yellow glasses stood with his fists to his hips against a sky-blue background adorned with clouds. Steamer looked his eyes up and down, comparing which one was which. He did this four times before drawing a conclusion.

"It obviously can't be you, the scrawny one. So I believe that the true son of Boss Awesome who would follow in his father's footsteps, would be you…the muscular one."

And he aimed his mechanical right hand at Wasabi, whose reaction was an appalling drop of his jaw.

"Do I look like the son of a white man to you?"

"Adopted maybe," said the color-blind baron. "But why should that matter. We are all an equal species."

His right hand grabbed Wasabi and he turned to the door just as Sora and his animal allies arrived.

"Tell Boss Awesome that he has until midnight if he wants to see his precious baby child again."

Smoke poured from his jetpack and his laughter seemed to echo throughout the main hall. Fred, hoping to find a clue as to where he would be leaving, called out through the haze.

"Could you cackle again? I can't tell where your creepy laugh is coming from."

But no answer came and when the smoke disappeared all five and four guests were staring into the hole that the baron had left from his drill. Sora, immediately believing that he had escaped through the hole, aimed his Kingdom Chain at it and said.

"I suggest we follow him down that hole."

"Why bother?" Fred shrugged. "He's too far away now."

"Too far away from his mind," Go-Go interjected. "Because that was one super-confused villain."

Hiro scratched his head with his right hand.

"I am also confused. Who is Boss Awesome?"

As Ed left the room unnoticed, followed by the five members of Big Hero 6 and the three guests, Lips, still hiding behind the pillar, was reporting back to Texie through a small microphone lobed in his left ear.

"I think we've found Baron von Steamer, but I don't think he wanted any cash, he just wanted the black guy."

"Black guy?" Texie sounded confused. "Never mind that now. Get Ed and Spaldoni will tell you where Big Hero 6 will find him."

"Right, Texie."

Lips was just about to leave, when he saw the face of Detective Tracy, standing perfectly motionless with his arms crossed over his chest.

"Do I even want to ask who you were talking to?"

Lips thought up a quick lie.

"No one."

But Tracy gave him a displeased face.

"You clearly said 'Texie'."

"She thought that maybe she could handle that Baron von Steamer guy herself incase Big Hero 6 would fail."

Tracy was suspicious, but he was certain to help Big Hero 6 as a proper devotee of the law.

"I'll see her about that."

And he turned on his heels and walked out of the hall. He could already guess as to where she was.

Still in their uniforms, Fred had taken the remaining crew to his father's secret chamber, a factoid that he not yet shared with them last year. Inside was an eight foot by ten-foot poster of Boss Awesome, the same one used by Steamer.

"Your dad was a superhero?" Honey's mouth was getting dry.

"And his name was Boss Awesome?" Go-Go thought it sounded odd.

"It was the 70s," Fred reasoned in a sotto voice.

"Are you sure we're supposed to be here, Fred?" Hiro was observing a half-foot long rocket. "I don't want to be the unfortunate victim of your father's wrath."

"You're not the only ones," Sora whispered.

"My father's a very nice man," Fred's tone was rapid but understandable to most ears. "But he is halfway around the world in Switzerstan."

Behind him, the oval shaped screen revealed an old man with a white fur coat and silver-grey ski goggles. The background was ice-blue and snow white. Sensing the monitor turning on, Fred looked back and waved his right hand nervously at his father.

"Hey, Dad."

"Hello, Mr. Lee," Honey added.

Stan, a brave man in spite of his waning years, was indeed in a wintery setting as his wife had mentioned earlier.

"Do you and your friends mind telling me what you are doing in my secret sanctum?"

Fred explained while gesticulating.

"First, we were at my Bro-Tillion and then this asshole Steamer shows up—"

Alarmed, Stan removed his ski mask.

"Baron von Steamer?!"

"So you know him," Sora waited for a positive reply.

"Of course, I know him. I just cannot believe that he is still in the game. He was famous back in the day."

"Well, he's back…" Fred turned his fingers into claws and brought them to his shoulders. "For revenge."

"Of course he is," Stan gave a friendly tone. "He was my arch nemesis back in the day."

Hiro stepped forth.

"He captured our friend, Wasabi. Can you help us find him."

Stan searched his memory, not letting a growl in the background disturb his thoughts.

"I believe he had a multiple number of hideouts around the industrial district. But he did have a couple of favorites. Hit the map button on the console."

Fred's right index finger pressed down the map button, presenting a green map of the industrial district. A total of six red lights blinked on and off every two seconds as Stan explained them

"These lights indicate the locations of Steamer's old lairs."

Fred pressed his left index finger on the center. It disappeared once it had made contact.

"It cannot be that one. It's a Noodle Burger."

Then he pressed the other two under where it once was.

"That's another Noodle Burger. Noodle Burger. Noodle Burger. Actually, that was a Yaki Taco."

He stopped. Now there were only two left and it was Hiro who made the conclusions.

"So the only two locations that are not Noodle Burgers are the abandoned subway station and the old iron works."

Go-Go observed the map and immediately drew the distance. The two locations were at least two miles apart.

"They are on opposite sides of the city. If we do it one at a time, Wasabi is likely to be killed when midnight comes a lot sooner than we think."

"Then that means we'll have to split up," Sora suggested. "Donald, Goofy; you go with Go-Go, Honey and Fred. I'll go with Sora and Baymax."

Goofy and Donald saluted as Stan pointed his right index finger at him in agreement.

"Classic."

His head did not turn around to notice the white furred abominable snow monster with its teeth bared and ready for the kill, but his right hand did. It curled into a fist and drew a strong backhand and the creature's jaw, sending it tumbling back down the mountain to its death.

"I still got it," Stan congratulated his own strength.

Little did they know about Stan's call being picked up by Spaldoni on the wiretaps.

Now having switched into his trademark yellow tenchcoat and fedora, Tracy entered the dining hall of the Club Ritz with the best of intentions. There were only a small number of patrons, six at least, due to the majority of them currently attending the Bro-Tillion. When he came into the center of the room, Texie was sitting at Big Boy's table with her back to him, in quiet conversation with Mucelli about Big Hero 6's current progress. Spaldoni had already informed her about Baron von Steamer's hideouts. She could sense Tracy's presence by the way his footsteps echoed throughout the dining room.

"Tracy, how marvelous. I would have thought that Big Boy will regret me for not killing you, but, now that's serving the next nineteen years in Alcatraz, I'm a changed woman."

Her smile was vivacious compared to Tracy's serious mug. He was clearly uninterested with her soliloquy.

"What do you know about a guy named Baron von Steamer? He claims to have been a major hotshot back in the seventies, or so my resources back at HQ tell me."

"Nothing but another sinner to add to this city. He's just a straight arrow who has missed his mark. A senile old man who thinks he is a celebrity, when in fact he is not."

Texie's eyes darted to the left, hoping to be far away from Tracy's piercing gaze as she told the truth…with only a few detractions regarding the source of her information.

"Well, let's just say that according to a reliable source of information, whom I shall not name, Steamer had a hideout in the old iron works factory. A hotspot for pre-traditionalists who accustom themselves to Victorian values and styles. But now up until earlier this year, there has been a new presence that has invaded the former territories of the Apparatus and nobody seemed to know or care until now. The address is 1450 Egbert Ave."

"Thanks."

Tracy tipped his fedora in his right hand walked out of the room. And when he had completely left the club, Texie tapped the microphone in her left ear and spoke into it.

"Did you get that, Ed?"

"Sure did, Aunt Texie. But are you certain that Steamer's gonna be there?"

"Definitely. What goes better with steampunk than an old iron works factory?"

In his lair, a round room of copper and gold held together by 400 rivets, Baron von Steamer being a drama queen to Wasabi, who was caged in an imprisoning birdcage made of the strongest copper, pointing his mechanical right arm to Wasabi, who felt both frightened and frustrated.

"After all these years, I will finally get my revenge! And I will do it, by stripping the very he cares about the most…of his soul. For nigh, upon half a century, your father and I have clashed, causing unintentional deaths of selfless innocents. But tonight, all of that will change…Boss Awesome will die at my mechanical hand!"

Wasabi, who had been struggling to bend the bars apart in vain, could only show his aggravation.

"Look, Mr. Steam Guy, I have no idea who Boss Awesome is, and even you think I'm his adopted son, Fred's the one you really want! I'm just a poor soul named Damion No-Ginger."

But the first sign of doddery had already permeated Steamer's mind.

"That is exactly what your father would want you to say, and I must admit that it is a very good alias."

"Alias?! The only alias I've got is 'Wasabi No-Ginger', not Fred!"

"And your point is…?"

Baron von Steamer gave the darkie an innocent smile beneath his cruel and heartless façade.

"YOU HAVE GOT THE WRONG GUY!"

The man just scoffed and his mechanical arm turned two dials, setting his "steam-machine" to kill.

"Save your breath, you bastard. If your daddy does not show up…it will be your last—"

Before he could say "one", Wasabi tried to defend himself.

"Breath? No! I have lots of breaths."

And he demonstrated by breathing in and out, slowly over the course of seven seconds. But he knew all too well that in a matter of minutes, the angel of death would be there to collect his soul.

 _If I see Tadashi again, I'm gonna say "WHAT THE FUCK WERE YOU THINKING?!"_

In the subway, which stretched for over sixteen miles, Hiro, riding on Baymax's back and Sora, riding on his glider were zooming through the tunnel as fast as an express train. They blew over forgotten newspapers and dust that peppered the tracks until Hiro heard the baron's voice.

"Salutations, nosy interlopers!"

This brought all three rescuers down to the ground.

"You have made the grievous error of trespassing on the lair of Baron von Steamer!"

The baron's monogram was written in a gold font on opposite sides of Hiro and Sora, and without warning, the two insignias, revealed to be shields, shot forwards at Hiro's head. Once they made contact, his head would have most likely been crushed…if it had not been Baymax's hands stopping the stompers when they were about five inches away from Hiro. Sora, sensing the approach of danger, jumped back, letting Baymax do the work. Within four seconds, the stomper were pushed back into place, allowing Hiro to breath a sigh of relief.

"Thank you, Baymax. These old-fashioned booby traps are something we should look out for. Sora, do you have a match?"

"No, but I suppose Baymax does."

The palm of Baymax's right hand emitted a yellow glow into the tunnel and readouts began to appear in front of Hiro that spelled "danger".

"Wait."

His party members halted.

"I am picking up a heat signature."

Sure enough, a red square of blood and evil was coming out of the corner of his right eye. But, unsure of what it was, he turned to Baymax over his right shoulder.

"Could it be a furnace?"

Baymax detected it as well.

"Do furnaces typically move?"

Hiro looked back, morbidly.

"No."

Suddenly, there was rumbling noise.

"I thought you said there weren't any trains running," breathed Sora in alarm.

Baymax looked forward at the darkness ahead, sensing it as well.

"It is moving toward us…approximate speed: 60 miles per hour."

The headlamp of a streamlined steam locomotive lit up the whole tunnel, causing Hiro to panic.

"It's getting closer!"

The engine had three glowing eyes that puffed smoke, imitating the snorts of a bull.

"I suggest we leave now," Baymax agreed.

Just as Sora turned back, a cage came in front of the entrance that was teen away from them, followed by six steel bars that came from the sides, vertically positioned halves of a doorway made of copper, a gear that came from the left and another door of orange metal that slammed down in front of Hiro with a heavy drop. The locks made any chance of an escape impenetrable.

"That is unfortunate," was all Baymax had to say.

But Hiro bravely pointed his left index finger to the ceiling and ordered.

"Baymax! Power lift!"

Baymax's hands grabbed the middle sleeper on the track before him and brought it up by four feet. Then his hands pushed the sleep up from under and directed it to the ceiling. The engine came closer and closer and all Sora and Hiro could do was hold their breaths and pray that the engine's weight would not crush them. Baymax grabbed the two humans into a hug…waiting for the end…or salvation.

As luck would have it, the engine had successfully launched into the air despite all other odds and carved a large hole through the roof, having scuttled sideways on the street. Dust and eight pieces of concrete covered the three heroes and Hiro was relieved to have escaped death for the umpteenth time.

"You are safe now," said Baymax once he slid the slabs off his arms.

Sora coughed from the dust settling into his lungs.

"Thank you, Baymax."

Walking under the lifted tracks, Hiro was surprised to hear the voice of Baron von Steamer making his announcement, for the second time. The precise quality, pitch and rhythm of the announcement was exactly the same as the first time.

"Salutations, nosy interlopers! You have made the grievous error of trespassing on the lair of Baron von Steamer!"

Baymax turned to his right and concluded.

"Baron von Steamer is not here."

Hiro and Sora turned to Baymax's direction and saw a Victrola record player with a golden amplifier, the record itself still spinning in place. Hiro's right hand removed the needle while both of Sora's hands took the record disk. The Keyblader then used both hands to form an emitting glow of light that shrunk the record down to nine inches. Once that was completed, he placed the record into his right vest pocket.

"I think this will come in handy. Tracy will want to look at it as evidence."

Hiro immediately made his next assumption.

"The iron works."

And all three set off for the second destination through the hole that the locomotive had carved.

The interior of what was supposedly the iron works was damp and abandoned, with puddles of water and oil from all four corners. Some of the puddles, especially those on the walls, had dried up. Overhead pipes dripped with water, stalactites and cobwebs. Rats fighting over a piece of cheese that Baron von Steamer had fortuitously been able to give, stopped and ran for cover at the sound of footsteps. Or in the case of Go-Go Tomago, the sound of wheels rolling in.

"My God, this place is disgusting."

Fred took her remark very seriously.

"I agree. Steamer really nailed it."

Then Honey noticed something else. An intact kitty cookie that seemed to have fallen out of Wasabi's pocket shit.

"Guys! Look! It's Rodrigo! He lived!"

Her friends rushed over and Go-Go knew why.

"Wasabi must be leading us a trail."

"No pun intended," Goofy commented. "But I think he's one smart cookie."

Donald took a look at it by having Honey hand it to him in his right palm. His left eye carefully pieced through the details. But Fred's hunger soon got the best of him and with his right hand snatching it out of Donald's fingers, he plopped it into his mouth and crunched on it. Honey was dismayed.

"Did you want this?" Fred asked idiotically. "If so, I am sorry."

"I forgive you," Honey reply was emotionless but she still continued to give a stiff upper lip all the way through to the baron's main chambers.

Outside, Ed peered through the broken windows. His aunt's voice spoke through the communicator lobed in his left ear.

"All right, my darling nephew. It's all up to you. Just follow those heroes, make sure they don't see you and get whatever that von Steamer guy owns."

"Anything specific."

"Documents claiming his ownership of the place. Perhaps even a gadget that could be of great use to me in the future. If there are any documents, bring them to me and I will change his signature to mine."

"Very discreet of you, Aunt Texie."

Ed could imagine the pleasing smile in his head and rather than thinking about a reward, he rushed inside just before Tracy's unmarked Crown Victoria pulled up to the entrance.

"Time to beat feet."

"Of course," was all Wasabi had to say when the red words of volatile nature "No Service" was scrawled across the screen of his phone. He had done it with his back turned to Baron von Steamer, who was working on the steam machine, intent on calling either his friends or Tracy and the police force. The words seemed to have disappeared, when he extended his left hand all the way outside of the cage, being certain to make sure that Steamer was not watching. His face lit up at the signal turning green for having established a connection. But his elation soon cut short, as his fingers, oiled from working in the kitchen caused the surface of the phone's rear to slip out of his hands.

"Shit," he muttered in Swahili as the screen cracked upon impact to the floor.

But Baron von Steamer's elation was inevitably gaining the upper hand.

"Oh, yes! Midnight is nigh, my captive buffoon and your father is not here."

By this time, Wasabi had been growing agitated.

"ARE YOU FUCKING BLIND!? I! AM! NOT! FRED! MY DADDY IS A CHEF AND AN ORTHODONTIST!"

Little did he suspect the presence of Honey, Go-Go, Goofy, Donald and Fred jumping in from a doorway that led to the top, followed by Ed about a minute later.

"Nice try, my child," the baron went on. "But now it is time to FIRE UP THE IRON WORKS!"

His mechanical right hand pulled the lever down and four differing paths of magma poured from hidden vats that were well-preserved. Slowly and dramatically, the cage began to lower…right into the center where the cage would sit, it would kill Wasabi the instant the magma made contact with his feet. But instead, the double metal doors gave way to a pit of magma that would be even worse than the previous concept.

"STOP!" he screamed. "What if I say I am…"

He looked up to the right by ten degrees, surprised.

"Fred?"

The Kaiju monster form of Fredzilla gave a shout of "SUPER JUMP!" and blew fire from his mouth once he was about forty feet in the air. The flames caught the crane arm that was lowering the cage, burning it to a crisp. Wasabi knew that instant death from both methods was not too far away. He had one chance left.

"Aren't you guys supposed to be saving me?"

The flames licked the rope as the front gears collapsed, followed by the rear one…and that was when Go-Go rolled in and delivered a right uppercut to the cage. It slammed against the wall on that side and landed sideways. Wasabi, his fear having rose to fever point, was munching on his right fist. But then he opened up his eyes at Go-Go staring at him, unimpressed.

"You can open your eyes now."

"I don't think I want to," Wasabi shook his head.

Trying to race along the catwalk without being seen, Ed had found himself in a control room, located in the northern tip of the lair. Baron von Steamer often used this to experiment his machines and even acted like his own personal bedroom.

"I'm in," he whispered to his aunt.

"Good, do you see any documents?"

Ed turned to the four golden drawers before him. He opened the top ones, then the bottom ones from left to right. The first one contained tools, the second one held washers, the third had buttons, knobs and switches and the fourth one had blueprints.

"No documents," Ed shook his head. "But there are some nice plans in here."

"Take as many as you can then," Texie's voice came on the other line. "They might be useful."

As Ed grabbed two of them, he could hear the baron screaming at the top of his lungs.

"YOU GODDAMNED MILLENIALS!"

Then came the sounds of air hissing into what sounded like a chute, taking the baron with it until all was silent.

Opening his eyes, Wasabi saw Honey's right hand pulling his left out from the cage.

"Did he give up? Just like that?"

Honey didn't think for a minute about Wasabi's question.

"Maybe, but I think we should get out."

"Couldn't agree more," Wasabi said.

But then there was an alarm, followed the baron's laughter. Wasabi looked up in feat at the pair of metal sliding doors opening to reveal a coal black automaton that had a hexagonal body and six or eight legs. Go-Go had only one thing to ask once it had stopped in mid-air.

"What the hell is that?"

It leapt from the rope and spun back first, rotating and spinning. Twenty feet it fell into its feelers. It was none other than some type of mechanical tarantula, like the one seen in _Wild Wild West_. Fred could feel the tingling in his bones once the baron spoke again.

"Where is Boss Awesome? You are not bosses or awesome!"

And he lifted the left front leg as high at it could go.

"Move!" alerted Go-Go.

Where she once stood, the impact of the feeler left a cracked ground that brought dust into the air. Honey hid behind a man-made rock as did the others.

"So it's a spider with a hammer," Fred whispered.

"And I don't see what it has to do with steam," Go-Go muttered.

"I'll handle it!" Donald quacked.

He lifted the mage's staff in his right and commanded.

"THUNDER!"

This seemed to have destabilized the spider into a shuddering state, which was long enough for Ed to escape via the same way he came in and Goofy to hammer-dive on the windshield with his own shield, which cracked upon impact and a third-fourth of the shield was seven inches away from giving Steamer a bloody nose.

Ed had been hiding behind a prey pillar once he saw Tracy following Hiro, Baymax and Sora into the corridor that led to Steamer's lair and without any seconds thoughts, Baymax shot his right fist at the back of the automaton spider and flew back up like a dive bomber.

Although the leviathan had been weakened, Fred was still forzen with fear.

"So many legs," he whispered.

But then…

"Come on, Fred, you can do this!"

Fred had not realized it at the time. But a mixture of inner voices, some belonging to Hiro, Sora, Tadashi and his own father, the superhero that he had wanted him to be, Fred had been inspired to begin a new era of bravery, awakening the sleeping courage from within him. It bounced him toward the cockpit of the spider and it was at that moment that the baron soon realized his mistake.

"You asked for Frederick Lee IV and you got him, asshole!"

The woozy baron finally came to his senses.

"So you're Frederick? Now I see the resemblance."

His blinding eyes of anger turned to Wasabi.

"How dare you impersonated him!"

He wanted to scream, but now he had to regain his strength right away.

"At least now I can exact revenge on his baby child."

This was enough to piss Fred off.

"First of all, today is my Bro-Tillion. I'm not a baby-child, I'm a MANCHILD, MOTHERFUCKER!"

And he proceeded to unleash a rainstorm of flames onto the limbs. Then he pressed down on his extended legs and leaped into the air, gracefully cartwheeling above the machine and bringing fire down upon it. The legs, which had been engulfed by the flames, transformed into a red magma that melted, ensuring that Baron von Steamer would never escape. Fred gave a bow, bringing his right arm his stomach before he stood up again and clinched dramatically.

"You messed with the wrong party, Steamer!"

But before Tracy could bring the man in to justice, a slight wind, followed by the darkening show came from above the roof, revealing that same man whom Yama had encountered before. It had a voice that echoed all over the chamber In a sinister tone.

"I agree with you, Frederick. Baron, you have a debt to pay…for your sins."

Steamer stared at the caped, trenchcoated man whose mouth had been covered by a red scarf. His question was superseded by Hiro who asked.

"Who are you?"

He turned to Hiro, and his voice reverberated again.

"The Shadow."

Baron von Steamer shook his head and clutched his mechanical arm very protectively.

"It appears you have bested me, Frederick and the whole lot of you. But I will have my revenge yet!"

Within a second, he was covered by the same tube that had brought him to the hidden chamber of the automaton spider.

"VILLAINY DEFIES GRAVITYYYYYYYY-OH!"

He was just before the open hole, when the length his mechanical arm caused a sudden jerk that brought him to a halt. Steamer tapped his left foot three times and proceeded again.

"Eventually!"

Everyone had been so concentrated on Steamer's awkward escape, that neither of them noticed Ed.

When he returned to Club Ritz, he found his aunt at Big Boy's table, sipping on a glass of yellow champagne. Ed showed her the blueprints.

"Here they are, Aunt Texie."

Ed folded them out on the table and she gave a onceover on the blueprints of the automation tarantula before giving her nephew a severe scowl that he had seen before.

"I know that face, you think I was foolish not to get you back anything that was valuable to you."

"Not really," Texie sighed, placing the glass down. "I just believed that Spaldoni wasn't thinking clearly."

She placed her right fist to her chin, imitating The Thinker. Her plan was simple yet detailed and determined. In layman's terms, she had bigger fish to fry.

"What we really need are more men, more money and more territory that the modernists have not yet claimed since Big Boy's arrest. We will play Spaldoni's plan pragmatically and bide our time. And I swear, Ed, on your sainted mother's grave that someday soon, we are going to bring San Fransokyo back under the rule of tradition. Criminal tradition by running businesses through the organized syndicate."

Then something else crossed her mind, something that she hadn't thought about for over three years.

"I just wish that Tadashi was still alive, I didn't bring him under my power as much as Breathless did."

And she gritted her teeth with inflaming jealously.

* * *

For budgetary reasons bought upon by Steamer's damage, the Bro-Tillion was moved to the Lucky Cat Café. It had been suggested by the ginger-haired woman who had managed to escape with one of the business cards given to her by Aunt Cass. All of the surviving guests were present and Sora had offered to salvage the remains of the decorations while they were still fresh, including a red banner with the words "Fred's Bro-Tillion" in white above the door, with three balloons on each side that had been purchased from the local shop: red, light blue and mauve on the right, green, yellow and pink on the left.

Inside, it was crowded, with local customers drinking out of tea and coffee or whatever Aunt Cass had to snack on. Hiro and Baymax didn't even need to wear their uniforms and so did their friends, they and Sora just stood there in the middle of the room with crossed arms and satisfied expressions. That is, until Aunt Cass dropped a pile of 400 papers onto the round table before.

"Look at all these catering jobs, Hiro! I'm booked solid!"

She gave Hiro a side hug before doing the same to Sora and Baymax. When she released them, she looked over to the new expresso machine, which had a yellow tank above the red for extra liquid and the handles seemed be just a tad longer than the older one.

"I just love this new expresso machine, don't you Binky?"

On the right-hand side of the new machine, which seemed to shake under the strain of the extra liquid tank, stood Binky with her arms crossed and a look that told Wasabi, who was also standing on her left side, that she wasn't too impressed with the new location. To her, it seemed small and claustrophobic.

With the recent memory of his captivity crawling back to him, Wasabi rushed from the coffee machine, expecting a large explosion that would splatter hot liquid all over the place, but instead, there came a puff of steam from the right side, flattening Binky's bun for the second time in a night.

"See, this is nice," Honey Lemon said to Go-Go.

Go-Go had looked down to see the remains of the hors d'oeuvres from the prior location before her on a silver platter: six brown ponies decorated with black eyes, a smile and pink hooves. Her left hand picked up the one from the top, causing Honey to gasp in fear. She had loved her creations too much.

"What's his name?" Go-Go asked her.

"Cinna."

And she took the horsey from Go-Go in both hands and cradled it like it was her own child.

On the other hand, with Goofy, Tracy and Donald taking some of the other helpings close to the girls, Fred came up to Joan and offered her his right hand.

"May I have this dance?"

Joan said nothing, she was just too proud her son's maturity. Within the next second, they were dancing the waltz in a counterclockwise direction, just as Baymax had taught him. Then he looked over his right shoulder to see that Binky had moved from behind the counter to the front of it, already having fixed her hair in the process. He asked his mother.

"Do you think Binky's having a good time?"

From the left side of her was Baymax, who showed sympathy for the snooty woman.

"Your stress level has elevated. Would you like a hug?"

Binky's eyes went to Baymax and she shrugged.

"Whatever."

That being said, Baymax pulled Binky into his arms and her patted her head.

"I'm sorry that my Bro-Tillion got ruined, Mom. I know how much you wanted me to impress Binky, even if she is not my girlfriend."

"Of course, she isn't," Joan tried to soothe her son's guilt. "I don't know about you, but I like this one better. I think it's time we both stopped worrying about Binky. I am so proud of you, dear."

"Right back at ya, Mom."

With Baymax consoling Binky, Hiro and Sora looked up into the night sky, wondering.

"Who do you think the Shadow is?" Sora asked Hiro.

"Probably someone else who know a lot more about superhero competition," Hiro told Sora. "And wherever he is, I just hope he can bring Baron von Steamer to justice since the both of them disappeared."

But both Hiro and Sora could agree on one thing with Fred: it was definitively the best Bro-Tillion ever.


	3. Big Roommates

Mr. and Mrs. Miyazaki were proud to give their daughter her own apartment as a special treatment for getting into San Fransokyo Institute of Technology. It was located on the middle floor in the front center of the Potrero 1010 and had grey and silver furnishing with a wooden floor that Honey Lemon herself quickly decorated with a variety of colors. Another girl named Regina Quinn lived there. She had flaxen hair, blue eyes and often wore pink. Sometimes, she and Honey would get along like old friends, but at other times she would be just plain mean and irascible over her chemistry experiments.

A few days after that, she met Go-Go and Fred in the cafeteria of SFIT. They and the others were watching a homemade volcano, shaped like a cake, jiggle and wiggle like an aspic. The left side fell off, leaving a piece for Fred, but Go-Go just looked at the substance with a confusing look and asked.

"What the hell is this supposed to be?"

Fred rubbed his hands together.

"It's mystery loaf. Don't any of you know that today is Mystery Loaf Monday? Tadashi always remembered."

Hiro shook his brother's memory out of his head before he asked.

"So you have no idea what is in that thing?"

"Well," Fred had already prepared the fork in his right hand and the knife in his left. "It wouldn't be a mystery, now would it?"

But Baymax had other ideas. He lowered the front half of his body and scanned it. Microscopic contents appeared in his readout.

"Although it does not have the shape, color of any known natural foods, consuming it will not cause permanent damage."

"Good enough for me, Baymax," said Fed as he sliced another loaf for himself.

The fork in his right hand grabbed a piece and he loaded it into his mouth. The taste was so good and so…satisfying that he practically enjoyed it too much.

"I detect notes of beef by-products….or is that hair-net?"

His eyes took a careful look at the piece on his fork, confirming that it was safe to eat.

"No," he said at last. "It tastes like….CILANTRO?! OH MY FUCKING GOD!"

His right hand dropped the fork and grabbed the glass of pure water that Go-Go was about to drink and scarfed it down all the way to the bottom in three gulps. Finished, he handed it back to Go-Go, who was surprised.

"It'll eat around it."

And his fork grabbed another slice of the meatloaf when a lemon colored ball turned the entire contents of the meal into a yellow molten mess.

"HONEY!" shouted Fred in an applauding manner.

Honey, who had been working on safer version of her chem-balls (complete with her green gloves and goggles), immediately apologized.

" _Perdóname._ "

Hiro, moving his hamburger with cheese and lettuce out of harm's way, gave her a civil reminder.

"Honey, this is not the place to reload your chem-balls."

"Maybe not, but this is the best way I can mix my two favorite things: best friends and chemistry."

She loaded a red ball into the purse and finished with an "All done!"

Nobody had noticed that Wasabi was missing until he came up shouting.

"Honey Lemon, oh thank God your alive!"

Go-Go pierced her eyes at the young woman with a knowing look.

"Did you go full mad scientist mode again?"

Honey shrugged it off like it as nothing catastrophic as she removed her gloves.

"It was no big deal, my roommate Regina Quinn made lemonade and I was trying out a new formula for instant ice when the whole room froze over and now…mine and five other apartments have been totaled. But don't worry! Regina's fine! I just dragged her all the way here so that she could thaw."

Over on the table that was four feet away from the team's was Regina, her hands clawing at the table as she was encased in blue crystal ice. Honey walked over to her, waving her left hand.

"Hi Regina!"

But Regina's face, although frozen in a grimace, managed to give her roommate a glare that was as cold and icy as the chemical prison she had trapped her in. Fearing her wraith once she had thawed, Honey quickly walked back to the table and sat down on Go-Go's left side. Sora, Donald and Goofy, who had been standing next to Baymax, asked her politely.

"So where are you going to live? I know it can't be my home island since it's too far away."

"Ditto with Disney Castle," Goofy added.

"This world is a good place," Honey said. "I'm sure that something will work out in the end…except for staying with my parents, they want me to be more independent and I can't let them find out about what I did. I could stay at your house Hiro."

"Thanks, but I'd rather not let you have Tadashi's bed. It'd be too painful."

Go-Go, sympathizing with Hiro, turned to Fred.

"You have a mansion, Fred. Isn't there a spare guest room for Honey?"

"I do, but my parents insist on a in-depth three-year background check for overnight guests."

Wasabi was dipping his French fries in vinegar and ketchup on each end.

"Can't be too careful with all those weirdos out there. And my place is not the type of place you'd be needing to experiment your chemicals in."

"And you probably wouldn't like my place," Go-Go finished. "It's in the Tenderloin District and that's a rough neighborhood."

"I find that hard to believe," replied Honey as she scooped some lettuce into the fork in her right hand. "There is no such thing as a bad neighborhood. Just bad neighbors. How big of a smile would it take to get a yes?"

To prove her point, the fork she was holding popped Go-Go's pink bubble once it had reached to her maximum height. Then she moved two inches closer to Go-Go and unleashed a big beam as she clasped her hands together. After three seconds, Go-Go announced.

"Yeah."

"Yay!"

And she pulled her friend into a hug.

"See? When you have amazing friends, no problem is too big…or at least's that what Tadashi said, he was so serious about those kind of virtues. Anyway, let's salvage whatever we can from my old apartment and take it to Go-Go's."

But Go-Go stood up and placed her hands on her hips.

"Tadashi never said that, I saw it on a bumper sticker on a car in B.O. Plenty's junkyard. Anybody else need anything? My glass is half full."

Honey took a second look at the glass in Go-Go's right hand. It was clear that her following response was that of an optimist's.

"Actually, the glass is half-full."

"I have scanned the glass," everyone else's attention turned to Baymax's. "It is 51.2% full."

A white background appeared on his monitor, stained by the ice-blue glass on the left side of the screen and four bars in a darker shade of blue going up. At the top bar was the number "51.2%" in a black bold font. In reciprocation, Go-Go took one swig of the glass and slammed it down on the table, carefully so as not to smash it.

"Empty," she said, epically.

By 5:00 pm, the van containing most of Honey's belongings, which had been salvaged by the team from the unscathed areas of her previous residence, arrived at Go-Go's three-story tenant on Turk St. Go-Go herself, was helping the truck to back up and park at the right place while Fred, Baymax, Goofy, Donald, Hiro and Sora watched from the sidewalk. Wasabi, who had been driving the truck, opened the door with his left hand and peered out to take a good look at the Tenderloin District in all it's corrupt, modernist majesty.

"Damn, you weren't kidding when you said this neighborhood was a rough place. It's crawling with jaywalkers."

And he said this to Go-Go who was lifting the van door up.

"Any sign of Honey Lemon?" asked Hiro, who took out the first box that he saw.

Go-Go turned clockwise and slightly extended her left hand to the girl in question who was standing across the street beside a biker with a blood red bandana, a black vest, kobicha shirt, Marengo trousers, jet black boots and a muscular build. He had brown hair, a matching goatee and his motorcycle, a Harley-Davidson with red flames, skull and crossbones and brown and orange streaks, perfectly matched the tastes of Ghost Rider.

"She's already here."

And sure enough, she had been trying to impress him with something suitably cosmetic and girlish.

"I think you're gonna love it! What do ya say?"

The man, about eighteen years older than her, nodded with a grunt.

"Yay!"

She tapped six buttons on her chemical laboratory of a purse and out came three balls of red, purple and lemon yellow which landed in her right hand while the left one moved the purse off of her shoulder and handed it to the motorist, who held it by the strap in both.

"You might want to stand back."

Before he could, Honey launched the balls over to the bike that was seven feet away from them. Once contact with the dashboard had been made, the motorcycle disappeared into a cloud of taffy shades, coming out just three seconds later to reveal that the bike had been masked entirely in that shade of pink with miniscule specs of glitter covering it.

Then out of nowhere, Honey rolled over to the man and snatched the purse back.

"You might want to be careful with your stuff around here," she warned Honey.

"I am, I asked…"

She turned to the muscular hooligan, mentally asking for his name.

"Felony Carl," came the mutter.

It was accurate enough on Honey's prediction that Felony Carl was a criminal with a heart of gold. But she turned back to her friend and resumed the reply.

"I asked Felony Carl to look after it."

She turned her head back over her right shoulder to Carl.

"You know, if you want to get on Dick Tracy's good side, you might want to go by Carl."

"It all depends on my parents," the criminal shrugged.

Then, after Go-Go returned the purse to Honey, Felony Carl sat on the bike and fired up the engine. He didn't mind the feminine color and glitter one bit.

"I love the sparkles," his voice vibrated in synchronization with the engine's. "It showcases how comfortable I am with my masculinity."

Honey smiled, glad to be of some altruistic help to lowlife, but Go-Go gave the man a suspicious glare.

Dibs Richter was the kind of guy who had seen _Saturday Night Fever_ one too many times, to the point in which he had copied Tony Manero's iconic walk just so he could look cool. In fact, he grew up in Brooklyn around the same parts as the filming locations of that specific film and even had a reputation for being of the best dancers of Studio 54 until his parents insisted on moving all the way across the country for a change of air. Most people in San Fransokyo weren't quite fazed with his hippity-hoppity retro slick, nor his 70s esque outfit of an emerald jumper, black pants with matching shoes and his blond hair combed back, especially his affection towards one African-American with a 90s aesthetic named Judy Hodgeon.

"Looking good, Judy!"

But the woman continued to ignore him until he turned clockwise and shot two index fingers at her…right in the direction of her nipples.

"Where are you going to take me out for coffee?"

Judy just flipped the bird at him with her right hand and shouted back.

"Up your ass!"

She had known Dibs since the day he first arrived and she knew first hand that he was not her type.

The only other friends that Dibs had were the traditionalist criminal duo, Duke and Sugar. Duke had a thin moustache, round glasses, a tan fedora, an earth-brown suit, a white necktie and a neon blue shirt, while Sugar was a slender looking woman with black curly hair and wore a typical gum-sample girl uniform: a red shako with the pink-lettered word "Gum" on the front, golden epaulettes, a blue shirt with a tear in the middle that went down to her abdomen, a black skirt and matching high heel shoes. If there was one thing that Duke and Dibs had in common, it was the hobby of purse-snatching. So far, since the day he arrived, he had successfully stolen over 8 purses in hopes of supporting his family with ill-gotten gains. But greed began to take over and he hoarded most of the money for himself.

Ignoring Judy's insult, Dib continued parading down Turk Street, pulling out a black ski-mask when he encountered Felony Carl reading the Tribune on his motorcycle which had been turned off.

"What's up, Dibs?"

"Just going to work, Felony Carl. I'm meeting Duke and Sugar just a few blocks ahead."

Felony Carl finally turned his eyes to the ski-masked thief and sneered.

"You really are a rotten thief; do you know that?"

"I'm sure you mean awesome thief?"

"It was just a plain observation."

Dibs peered his head closer at the sparkling details of the motorbike.

"Not a very good look for you, Carl. I actually liked the flames and death aesthetics all over it. But the glitter's cute though."

And he left in a steady beat of the dancing feet.

Mrs. Miriam Matsuda and her friends Toby Townly and Mary Steele were sitting on a bench just one block away from Go-Go's apartment. They had been shopping for foods and cosmetics for over the last three hours and longed for a rest. Ironically, Mrs. Matsuda was sleeping on the bench with her hands holding each other, but Mary and Toby were wide awake, trying to keep an open eye out for the bus. As Dibs crept his way behind a lamppost, Mary could have sworn that she heard a whoosh, followed by another one that seemed to stop behind her.

"Toby, did you hear a whoosh?"

"Probably the wind," muttered Toby. "Just wait for the bus."

Mary didn't bother to look behind her, or below her where Dibs was hiding. There was an open gap between the top and bottom halves of the bench, exposing Mrs. Matsuda's dull yellow handbag with a big pink stripe and two white pinstripes around the bottom. His right hand reached out for it before Mrs. Matsuda jolted out of a peaceful dream of her swimsuit modelling days, forcing Dibs to camouflage himself with the grey and blue "See Say" advertisement on the bus stop structure.

Unfortunately for Dibs, it was too late. The bus had pulled up and all three women headed straight home…but not before Dibs broke his concentration and dove his upper body for the bus door before it landed on the bottom of the bench. And that was when Duke and Sugar appeared from the right hand side of his perspective.

"Tough luck, huh, Dibs?"

Dibs tried to ignore Duke's taunting words as Sugar added hers.

"Better luck next time."

Dibs stood up and regained his confidence.

"And that is exactly what we'll do. Another attempt."

They found Wasabi twenty seconds later labelling and observing the boxes, treating them like his own system.

"Second shelf. Subcategory: Drinkware."

And once he had taken the box out of the way, carrying it onto his left shoulder into the tenant, Honey's chemical lab purse was in plain sight, sitting there atop two boxes. Given how big it looked, Dibs and his cohorts felt like they had won the jackpot. He rubbed his hands together maliciously and slid to the left behind the first box, moving onto the second one on the right and finally behind the third one forward, making sure that no one was spying on him.

Then, in swift movements, the purse was in his hands and a taxicab just so happened to pass by. When Dibs saw it, he rushed right over on fast legs away from the unsuspecting eyes of the movers. Duke and Sugar turned counterclockwise and took off after him. Dibs, fearing suspicion if he slowed the taxi down to ride in, clung to the rear of the vehicle, his hands gripping the roof while the purse hung in his right arm. Three blocks down, he jumped off the car and announced to a winded Sugar and Duke:

"Now that is how you steal a purse."

None of Big Hero 6, nor Sora and his compadres ever noticed that the purse was missing until tomorrow.

It was nine at night when Dibs, Duke and Sugar returned to their hideaway, an abandoned hangar in San Rafael, which had little to offer other than a table for meals, three retractable chairs and a grey-blue furred mouse for company. Police raid sirens from Chief Patton's patrol squad filled the ambience, emitting a red and blue glow that turned purple against the walls of the dilapidated structure. The murky stains of oil, paint and polluted water coated the outside walls and the windows were surprisingly intact. Dibs, Duke and Sugar entered through the front door, closing it to ensure a discreet illusion that no one had been living in it like a squatter. They approached the table on quiet footsteps, where the blue-furred mouse was waiting for them, hoping that his "owners" had some cheese or other foods to share, but of course, they didn't. Dibs told the mouse his side of the story.

"They all said: 'Dibs, you don't have the skills, brain or hand-eye coordination to make it as a thief, but this time I am going to prove them wrong."

He used his right hand as balance to hold the purse as he left fingers tried to open it. But Honey's purse was not equipped with any lock to open it up so Dibs took the more savage route: by forcefully gripping it and hitting it on the table six times over, which was enough to frighten away the mouse. He did not want to be the victim of a madman.

Before Sugar and Duke could console their ally, the sound of the door opening up resonated throughout the hangar and all three, who were just about as equally frightened as the mouse, hid under a trio of boxes from the left side.

Out from the shadows stepped Alistair Krei…or at the very least, his clone.

After his phone call to Big Boy before last year's showcase, Krei knew that he was doomed, so he proposed the unthinkable: a life-model decoy that would take his place in the event of death. Cloning on the other hand, seemed to be more natural and while much of his funds on building Krei Tech Headquarters went through, other funds went to the clone, which was perfected in a hidden laboratory somewhere outside the city (not Akuma Island) on the day before the real Krei had been successfully murdered by Callaghan. Following him was his assistant Alicia, who looked very much like the original Krei's assistant Alice, who had been a victim of the Blank in the attack. The clone looked identical to the prime Krei down to the last follicle of hair and even retained his memories and intelligence of the original host, as well as clothing: a dark blue pinstripe suit, a tan shirt and a light golden necktie. Not too many of the criminal underworld had heard about this until the following day.

"Alistair Krei?" cried Duke in an alarmed whisper. "I thought he was dead."

"So did I," replied Sugar, almost dropping her jaw.

"I might have heard about him," said Dibs. "But I don't think I have ever seen him in person before."

Fortunately, neither of the couple heard their voices. They resumed business casually.

"So what are we doing here?" asked the voice of Alicia.

She sounded almost annoyed at the very sight of the disused boxes and pipes that were littered around the room.

"Remember the neurotransmitter that the Hamada kid invented? The one that controlled his microbots?"

His right index finger pressed a red button and the table dipped forwards to the left and from underneath it came a sleek, dark blue table. It was oval shaped and the bottom half of it had a holographic console, bordered by a white rectangle. The projector revealed a 360 degree rotunda of the headband, which almost resembled the one Hiro used for his microbots just last year.

"Too bad it was lost forever."

Krei's eyes turned back to Alicia's words with suspicion…a playful suspicion.

"Or was it? I was able to study it from our security footage and it inspired me to make this."

His right index finger drew a white line on the console and out from it came a cylindrical display holding the headband on the top. Alicia was curious.

"You made this?"

"Not personally," said the frowning clone. "I hired a team, a _crack_ team that could replicate it down to the last wire. You wear this and you can control anything linked to it…with your mind."

And he pointed his left index finger where the cerebrum would be. But Alicia knew better.

"So you are saying that you committed plagiarism for this?"

Krei's left hand removed the headband from its display and gave Alicia a closer inspection, holding twenty inches away from her nose.

"No, this version is better."

"And how is it better?"

Alicia cocked her head to the left by four degrees at this.

"Legally different enough so that I won't be sued…unlike what my original self did with Project Silent Sparrow."

And his right hand produced a pair of night green goggles from his right vest pocket, attaching it to the front. Alicia took this with a convinced reply.

"That is better. Even without the goggles, it's less of a dead giveaway."

"Right now, we only have this prototype, but eventually, this little device will be worth billions."

Alicia clutched the light bleu binder to her neck, almost in fear. But the three other witnesses, watching through the handles, were enticed.

The mouse, who had been looking for some other scraps of food around the hangar, scurried around Alicia's right foot and she lifted it response. But thankfully the mouse was spared from being crushed once it had gotten out of the way.

"Rats? Seriously?"

"That's the drawback to secret labs in an abandoned hangar."

Krei explained this as he put the headband back on the display. Then his right index finger pushed the red button and the display went back inside before table switched back to the wooden one.

Once he heard the door shut, Dibs, Duke and Sugar lifted the box off of them and walked over to the table. It was Dibs who pressed the button with his left index finger and the sleek one came back once more. Then he placed Honey's purse on the table, the finger dashed the white line on the console and out came the headband display.

"Who's the lackluster thief now Felony Carl?"

Dibs placed the headband on and the lenses glowed from dark green to chartreuse. Duke and Sugar, waiting for their turn, watched him like loving parents watching their child trying out his or her birthday present.

"Oh, I love the night vision on this thing!"

He swung his arms left and right by five times until his right hand struck the purse off the table and rolled under it. While picking it up, Dibs did not realize that the back of his head was within range of the red button and his crown clicked on it. He got out of the way before the table went under and caught the purse, leaving it stuck in a 23-degree angle. As the table tried to return to it's convincing state, bouncing up and down as it did, Dibs tried to reclaim the purse and suddenly there was a wobbling, vibrating sort of noise that had been caused by the buttons being pressed down…almost all of them.

A purple explosion of goo shot forwards and attracted Dibs face and he started walking backwards as he tried to shake it off, feeling the pain only seconds after he muttered.

"I don't like where this is going at all."

His situation became serious as the goo engulfed his entire skin and Dibs felt like everything but his skeleton was being eaten away by the chemicals held within the substance that seemed lethal and toxic. It brought screams, moans and groans from his voice as the show of his transformation danced on the wall. Duke and Sugar held each other in fear as the man who was once their confidante was molded into the contravening figure of a monster that roared his first roar and his arms were held up in the shape of a triton as his legs tried to steady his almost weakened skeletal structure. With his tissue replaced with something suitably slushy, elastic and hazardous, Dibs raced out the door as his horrified allies looked at each other, knowing that they had to do something.

"Oh, Duke, what shall we do?!"

Duke squinted his eyes, following Dibs' escape route from beneath his specs.

"I know where to go."

Club Ritz.

Texie Garcia was sitting and looking over a check that a male patron left behind on the table: $35 for a stake, $24 for mussels and $10 for three glasses of wine added up to $69. By now the club had closed up for the night and she was thinking on other means of getting her needed money when Hy Habeas looked over to see the check himself out of curiosity.

"Hy, honey…take a rest, you'll need your sleep."

And she rubbed her right hand against his necktie, clawing for his chest and the heart within.

As he left for one of the upstairs rooms on the second floor, she turned in surprise to see Duke bursting through the door with Sugar following him. Allowing the two to catch their breaths, Texie smiled a greeting.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't the Duke and his Sugar pie. To what do I owe this honor?"

Duke began to stutter in a rhythmic beat, unsure of what to say other than the horror they had witnessed before their eyes.

"I-I thought we would, p-p-pay our re-respects."

Sugar took over before he could say anything that would be insensitive to the "Godmother".

"We would like to tell you that our friend Dibs Richter has just turned himself into a pink Gloppy."

Texie rested her chin on her upraised right hand, tapping her right index finger against the two front teeth.

"Dibs Richter…fellow purse snatcher?"

This was nothing more than an accurate guess as Texie had never seen the man before, if not in passing.

"Yes," Duke nodded as he composed himself. "I don't suppose you could keep an eye out for him would you? He took Alistair Krei's new headband and…turned himself into something gooey."

"Isn't that funny?" cracked Texie, standing up. "I saw Callaghan splatter Krei's big brains all over his headquarters last year with my own two eyes."

"I think he may be a clone or something," Duke was 90% correct on that fact.

"I was being sarcastic," Texie shrugged in a playful tone. "It's almost as funny as two traditionalists who are not yet associated with the Apparatus seeking my help over another criminal whose stolen tech will do us all a good favor."

"Do you know how we can stop him?" Sugar asked. "If we take the band off, maybe we can get the old Dibs back."

"Transforming him back to his older self won't be a problem," Texie grinned. "Big Hero 6 will do it for me and then, if you are very careful at not being seen, you will take the headband. Once it is my possession, I will take it to a technician who would do anything to ensure that Big Boy's dreams of putting San Fransokyo back under the control of the Apparatus…will come to fruition."

Duke just had to ask.

"You mean like control their minds?"

"Somewhat. But I am not going to snitch this onto Big Hero 6 or whoever's left in Alcatraz. We will reveal everything to them once every district and sidewalk becomes our territory again."

"Any alternate means?" asked Sugar, fearfully. "I don't wish to be at mercy of Dick Tracy if we fuck this up."

"Do I look like Big Boy to you?"

Texie leaned her head forward to Sugar by twenty inches, almost enough to break through her personal border.

"I suggest that you follow Dibs, stay out of Big Hero 6's sight and hold him up at gunpoint when he's alone, if not with family or friends."

"Can't we just murder him?" asked Duke, before realizing his words. "Because that bastard is no longer our friend."

"Wrong question, Dukey," Texie wagged her right index finger at this. "If you kill him, Tracy and the Crimestoppers will start nosing around for investigations. After all, what is the point of cold-blooded murder without a reason to do it? Even if you were to strip the headband off of his carcass, it would feel to easy even if he has turned into a 'gloppy' creature."

Sugar gave her the right answer.

"Then we threaten him."

"Sounds smart," Texie turned clockwise to face Sugar again, aiming the index finger at her like she was holding a gun. "Your intelligence, despite that getup you wear, astonishes me. To be honest, I have agreed on some accounts that some women are just about as smart as men."

Duke tried to counteract this remark with an additional piece of information.

"Well, if there is anything you want to claim, it's that our hideout is an abandoned hangar that also acts as a secret lab for Krei. All you gotta do is push the button under the table."

Texie turned back to Duke with hungry pupils.

"As a matter of fact, I have been looking for a piece of property that we can claim under the other criminals' noses."

That morning, Go-Go would soon realize that she would be hard to please in front of her new roommate. She was working on her magnetic bicycle, tuning the joins with a wrench in her right hand when Honey, after setting a glass down on the table in front of her, opened up a box labeled "Caterpillars" with both hands and a family of 168 orange butterflies flew out to freedom. As much as Honey loved butterflies, she was too much of a saint to see them suffocate under that box after two weeks in their cocoons. It made her smile to see them leave for good, but a handful of them got into Go-Go's purple streaked hair and she began shooing them away before they flew up the stairs and out the open windows.

An hour later, with only a coconut-scented candle and a white iPod on the small wooden table in front of her, Honey was standing there on her right foot, eyes closed, arms out, index and thumb connecting to each other and her left foot was placed against the right knee. Behind her, Go-Go, wearing indigo boxing gloves, was ready to beat up her grey punching bag. The music of "I Hate Everything About You" by Saving Days Grace, was dreadfully insinuating Honey's inner peace and her eyes started to squirm with every blow Go-Go made at the bag. At the very moment the sang came to an end, Honey's balance could not hold much longer and she fell on her behind.

After getting dressed into her street clothes at around 6:35, Go-Go opened the refrigerator to see that Honey's cheerfully anime stickers decorating her fruits and vegetables was not what she had in mind for her own hunger and Wasabi's sense of labeling. Her right hand then removed the single sticker on a round carton of milk and she drank it down in one swig.

While placing red tulips over by the wall where the dartboard would be, Honey was cutting off the bottoms while making sure that they were properly adjusted into the grey pot that was sitting on the white clothed table. She smelled the loving sent of their pollen, followed by the sent of DEATH when Go-Go's disks chopped off the heads of the two middle ones and struck the dartboard. Honey was appalled.

" _¡Leiko, perra! ¡Mataste dos de mis flores!_ "

As Hiro and Tadashi often did when they were in a situation such as this, Honey would show her angry side in Spanish, to the point where she and Go-Go, whenever they had arguments, addressed each other by their real names. But that was before she had realized that her roommate had decided to practice with an azure blindfold wrapped around the level of her eyes.

The next straw came at 6:00 in the morning. Honey, snoring with sprawled arms and cozied in her pink pajamas, heard the sound of graceful music (Bach's Air on the G String) coming from the alarm clock and her right index finger pressed the snooze button. Then she jolted upwards, stretched her arms with a yawn, grabbed her glasses from a nearby shelf with her right hand to put them on and shook her head four times, turning her hair from nappy to pristine. This was thanks to a special chemical that Honey often placed inside her hair before going to bed.

Seeing Go-Go, whose white tank top, black shirt and grey knickers contrasted with Honey's own pajamas, Honey went over to her, only to find her chest and the rest of her body having come to an abrupt stop by Go-Go's left hand pushed forward. Then the adrenaline junkie yawned and her eyes were at half-mast.

"Do you realize that you snore… _loudly all night?_ "

Honey's eyes darted left and right, facing déjà vu.

"Funny you should mention that. That's what Regina said. I always thought she said that because she was being a bit of a bitch. Sorry about that."

Go-Go's eyes began to droop back into sleep before Honey raised her voice.

"I SAID! I AM SORRY!"

This was enough to spring Go-Go back into full awareness.

"Yeah, whatever, let's just have some breakfast."

They had pancakes, a good source of healthy food according to Honey, or at least that was what she thought. Go-Go had nothing more than a cup of Korean joe to get her back into action.

There where at the Lucky Cat Café three hours later when Honey noticed something else.

"Has anyone seen my chem-purse?"

She and Go-Go were sitting at the usual round table with Sora and their friends. Hiro was gulping down to a ham sandwich with salad, Go-Go had a bowl of tortilla soup, Honey was having a burrito, Fred and Wasabi shared fish tacos and Baymax, Sora, Donald and Goofy were standing like bodyguards surrounding the table, hungrily watching them.

"I told you to be careful with your stuff."

Go-Go rubbed her left eye as she said this, hoping that the soup would bring her back to her hyperactive state.

"I was," Honey tried to reason. "I put it on a box."

After sipping the oolong tea from his left hand, raising his pinky as he did, Wasabi told his side of the story.

"The box that was labelled 'purse'?"

Go-Go intervened again.

"Well, if you had just left it on a box, then maybe, just maybe, it was stolen."

Honey was a bit alarmed by that. She tried to defend her actions.

"That's the sleep deprivation talking. Deep down, most people are good…like Sora here for example."

Honey raised her right hand to Sora who was standing behind Wasabi. The Key-bearer simply crossed his arms.

"If you are referring to a certain bald guy who had an obsession with creating another war, then you are 10% wrong."

Baymax interrupted the scene with one of his medical jargons.

"Sleep is important for cognitive function between seven and nine hours. It is optimal."

He walked carefully by two steps behind the weary Go-Go. She looked back up at him.

"Baymax that is bulshiiii…."

But unfortunately for her, Baymax's screen presented a rewind, pause, stop and play buttons all in black. The robot's left index finger pressed the play button and the soothing scores of Raff's Cavatina began to play. With Go-Go succumbing to her much needed sleep, Hiro turned over his right shoulder to his aunt.

"Aunt Cass, do you have a blanket?"

Cass, who was placing two white cups of tea from the countertop, replied.

"I think a pillow would be better."

Cass could care less about any of her customers sleeping in her shop when they could easily do it at home and before Go-Go's open mouth would end up drowning in her soup, Baymax's left hand stopped her from making contact with the broth. Hiro turned back again with a single word.

"Recovered."

Cass, relieved by this, went back to her customers.

"One blanket, hold the pillow! Coming up!"

Fred, who had been browsing through his iPhone, caught the news of something particularly interesting. His face beamed and his voice reached to a loud volume that Aunt Cass could not hear.

"Guys! Guys! Guys! There is a monster loose in the city!"

His right hand produced the iPhone, showing a broadcast of Wendy Wichell reporting from the studio. To her left was a purple gooey humanoid with chartreuse eyes.

"This just in: reports of what is described as a 'goo monster' is loose in San Fransokyo. Please note that we have no other evidence to support this claim, but I repeat that a monster is loose in the city!"

Hiro cocked his head to the right by five degrees in disbelief.

"Fred, there are no such things as monsters…only in a metaphorical sense. That image could be a very well done manipulation by a mastermind."

Fred just curled the fingers in his right hand and scoffed.

"That's what all the normal people say…RIGHT BEFORE THE MONSTER STRIKES!"

Sora, remembering his experiences with the Heartless, Nobodies and Unversed, crossed his arms in an angry shock.

"And I have fought millions of monsters both big and small, so I deserve some credit."

"I agree with you, Sora," added Fred, trying to look serious. "Defeating monsters is on our superhero resume."

But Honey had to disagree as well.

"Hiro's right, Fred. The only monsters that exist in this world are people who are heartless and cruel."

"And I suppose that is what your fancy science book says?"

Fred made air quotes at "science book" before the others (sans Go-Go) replied "yes" in unison.

"Well, let me tell you about some other fancy books: comic books. The Silver Age was full of monsters."

"You are not going to let this go until we check it out, do we?" Hiro asked suspiciously.

Fred gave Hiro an icy stare before he said.

"That is correct."

Giving in, Hiro stood up.

"Okay, I'm in."

The boys, Sora, Goofy and Donald followed while Honey stayed behind to address Baymax and Go-Go. She gave the robot a civil plea.

"Baymax, I need you to look after Go-Go."

"I am on it," said Baymax in three beats.

His arms took Go-Go's comatose body and cradled her in a bridal position, her head resting in her chest. Wasabi, looking on from the doorway, shrugged with a "hmm" and went down the street.

Sora, Fred and Hiro stood on the corner of Oak Street, right under an advertisement for Kentucky Kaiju.

"This is where the monster was last seen," Fred explained dramatically.

"And yet," Hiro panned the clean scenery. "I don't see any buildings knocked over, let alone giant footprints."

"Open you minds, guys. Maybe this monster doesn't have any feet."

"Maybe if a monster had been here," Sora butted in. "There would be at least one tiny shred of evidence."

And that was when he heard the sound of a squish and looked down at his right foot. Pulling it free from his soles, he found a small puddle of wet, sticky, purple gelatin.

"Let me touch it."

Without a second thought, Fred dripped his right index finger into the puddle and brought it back up, carefully gazing at it for three seconds before he finally sniffed it.

"That, my friend," he exclaimed, wagging the infected finger. "is clearly monster goo."

Before he could make an incredibly inappropriate time to signs one of his slightly tone-deaf improvised ditties, the sounds of screams filled their ears. Sora and the others knew that they had to help and so, he called Detective Tracy for backup.

"Detective Tracy, if you want to catch the purple gooey monster, meet us at Oak Street."

"I'm on my way," came the reply.

When Go-Go came to, she found Baymax looking down at her. She had been sleeping in his arms for the majority of the time that he, she, Goofy, Donald, Wasabi and Honey walked back to her tenant and she clambered out of them once she remembered Fred's monster warning. Wasabi, however was looking through the box that read "Purses".

"It has to be here! The box is labeled purses! If the purses are in the purse box then…"

His hands gripped his hair with an agitated force.

"GODDAMN IT ALL! NOTHING IN MY WORLD MAKES SENSE ANYMORE!"

He slumped the lower half of his body in shame as Honey walked up to her. She tried to console him.

"Not to worry, _amigo_. I am sure it will turn up."

"Or for the millionth time, you misplaced it long enough for someone to steal it."

Honey vexed to tolerate Go-Go's pessimism with glee.

"You know, your negativity is not helping us at all."

"So I'll be positive," Go-Go crossed her arms. "Positive enough to realize that you are not getting your purse back, _Aiko_."

Her jaw dropping at the sound of her real first name being mentioned, Honey's face went from sweet to sour. No matter how many times they argued over such tirades, she always seemed to gain the upper hand, but this time it was a lot worse. Her easily-replicable purse was either stolen or misplaced and as Conan Edogawa would say "There can be only one truth". But the truth was far from what the girls were going under from what Donald and Goofy had witnessed.

"And I thought we were the argumentized ones," Goofy whispered to Donald.

The duck smoothed his beak with his right hand as Baymax told the equally distressed Wasabi.

"Conflict resolution, through a third-party, is often effective."

"Then I guess it's third-party time."

Wasabi, acting hip and cool, pointed his right index finger at the glaring girls. Go-Go then brought up the idiosyncratic question of:

"Who in God's holy name keeps a box full of butterflies?"

Honey was close to matching her friend's signature glare.

"They were butterflies when I packed them, _Leiko_."

"Respect—"

That was all Baymax had to say before Go-Go brought down his right hand with her left.

"Exactly, Baymax. It's always so damn hard to respect a woman who lives in a fucking fantasy world of sugar and rainbows. A woman who's so _happy_ about _everything all the time._ "

"And understanding—"

Baymax brought his right hand to his stomach, trying to explain before Honey took advantage of his short-lived spiel.

"Well, I don't understand why you're a motherfucking, I can't believe I just said that, bitch whose so serious and…cool and hip and hop and chews bubble gum all day long the way a cow does."

"Perhaps—"

This time Baymax lifted his left hand. But Honey spoke again.

"Well, maybe I should find somewhere else to live."

"Fine!" Go-Go placed her hands on her hips. "I don't give a flying fuck about that. If that's what you want, then you can just leave."

Without another word, the two girls walked in opposite directions. Baymax did no more.

"Well, at least you tried," Donald quacked reassuringly.

"That was not effective," Baymax reasoned.

Then the screams came within his hearing range. It spelled disaster and death for the civilians and one of them, a man in a dark suit, suffered a fatal whiplash after crashing his Mitsubishi into a fire hydrant, followed by the wall of a hardware store. Crowds scattered in all directions, women dropped their purses and anything that was glass, was smashed upon impact from the monster's wavering limbs. Wasabi, the duck, the dog and the girls looked out in fear.

"I think we found Fred's monster," Wasabi muttered to the girls.

Faster before you could say "To the power of six!", the team rushed back to the Lucky Cat garage.

The Tenderloin district was in jeopardy by the purple gelatinous stick figure who strolled down the street like everything had gone back to normal in his life. He didn't mind his new look a bit, for Dibs Richter knew that he was the same man…on the inside. People stared in disgust, humor and fascination at the living, walking freakshow while Duke and Sugar followed him at a distance of four kilometers.

"Oh my god, he is hideous!" cried a brown-colored man in a yellow tank top.

Offended, Dibs looked over his left shoulder and shouted back.

"Well at least I don't as amazing as you, dipshit!"

In spite of this, he fell forwards into a combination of blob, reformatting himself into a stick figure once he had rightened his upper body. Then he looked up at the down drafting figures of Sora and the Big Hero 6 team coming toward him. Baymax slammed his feet onto the ground and the others scattered: the girls on the left, Wasabi on the right. Goofy, Donald and Baymax charged forwards. Before he even knew it, Dibs was surrounded in a six-foot circle.

"Baymax can you scan it?" asked Wasabi, pointing his right index finger at the creature.

"IT?!" Dibs was offended. "I am still a human being under here...! I think."

His humanity was being to doubt itself as he tried to regain the strength of his feet, which were literally glued to the floor from standing there. Baymax gave the person a quick analysis.

"Scan complete. The monster consists of human DNA and an unknown chemical compound, which is controlled by an electronic device."

His readout displayed the DNS structure on his left and on the right was a 3D model of Honey's purse. Baymax was putting two and two together with this data.

"It also contains contents of Honey Lemon's purse."

Honey felt sympathy for the poor victim.

"Oh, _dios mio_ , did my purse do this to you?"

Dibs observed his right hand and feigned innocence.

"Purse? What purse? I don't know anything about a purse."

He turned clockwise and walked five feet before Go-Go cut him off.

"The purse you stole," she glowered, going into interrogation mode.

"Oh, I see how it is, a purse goes missing and then the first thing you do is blame the goddamned monster."

"Then it was defiantly you," Go-Go crossed her arms.

Wasabi clasped his hands in relief.

" _Asante Mungu,_ that it was not a labeling error."

Donald turned his head to the others, making sure there was enough time for Tracy to take action by putting this creature behind bars. Then he noticed Honey feeling down.

"Honey, I know this is a hard time for you, but I think we should work beating this guy until his strength holds out."

"Like hell I will!"

That was all Globby said before his arms extended forward and groped Go-Go's breasts. The clutch was tight enough for him to drag the speedster counterclockwise and slam her face into Baymax's chest. As Wasabi tried to remove a piece of pink goo from his forehead in overarching fear, Hiro, Sora and Fred bounced into the fray, already dressed in their suits.

"That really is a monster," Hiro smiled to Sora and Fred.

Fred panned the crowd scattering about in all directions and called out.

"EVERYBODY RUN FROM THE GLOBBY MONSTER!"

A pudgy woman with brown hair, white glasses and a black bodysuit who was passing by, stopped to take her opinion.

"He is kind globby, isn't he?"

"Then it is settled," Fred placed his suited hands against his mouth. "Mind if we call you Globby?!"

"Of course I mind!" cried Dibs, or Globby as he was now known.

He splattered Donald and Goofy to the street with his right hand and looked to the heavens above him.

"Could this day get any worse?"

As if Odin had been watching, and decided strike karma back into him, Dick Tracy's unmarked Crown Victoria came to the rescue. It sped up behind the globby man at a reckless speed (ironic for a policeman to go against the speed limits, but this was an emergency) and the front bumper, struck him to the ground face first. The car sped on for three blocks until Tracy screeched it to a halt. Then he looked back over his right shoulder and saw no trace of purple littering the street.

"Looks like that's the last we'll see of him."

And he drove the car up to Mike's Diner for lunch.

Back on Oak Street, Hiro looked at the fifteen puddles of glop surrounding the area as he helped Honey to her feet.

"What a mess," he muttered.

Honey was now fretting about the situation.

"And it's all my purse's fault! What would Tadashi say about it if he was here?!"

Sora came up after observing a puddle that was eighteen inches away from the left sidewalk.

"He'd probably say; 'you should take responsibility for your actions, you should have listened to Go-Go, you should have—"

Before he could he say "looked after your purse better", Honey waved her hands defensively, bringing his slightly deep impression of her deceased boyfriend to a halt. She could feel the tears stinging her eyes.

"All right! I'm sorry. I! Am sorry!"

Baymax came up with Go-Go still on his chest, sprawled completely upside down from being harnessed by the purple goo.

"Save the apologies, Aiko, we'll make you another purse."

And they did so once they were back in the tenant. Wasabi was scrubbing the stains off of his chest plate with an old-fashioned wooden sponge in his right hand. Even with extra amounts of soap, the stains were slow to remove. The others had their own concerns to steal with, Honey was sitting on the bed under the stairs with her upper body bowed in heavy guilt, Baymax, Goofy and Sora stood beside her, Donald was looking in the refrigerator for some snacks, Hiro was working on the finishing touches of Honey's new purse, work goggles and all, and Go-Go and Fred were watching the news on her iPhone for any updates on Globby.

"Guys, I have some bad news, I am not sure that this is coming out."

The others could care less about Wasabi's current state of dismay, especially Fred and Go-Go, whose attention was turning to Felony Carl being interviewed by Bluff Dunder a block away from the tenant.

"So Carl, how do you feel about the monster's name?"

He handed the microphone to Carl just before he spoke.

"Globby's kinda accurate. I think it's an aptly cool name."

"Cool name, my ass!" Fred seemed offended as though Carl was the one who christened him. "I was the one who named him! It will be my legacy to the world!"

Hiro's right hand, holding a cutting torch, announced: "Your new purse is almost ready, Honey."

The girl just sighed.

" _Gracias_ , Hiro, but what good is it having a new purse when it can do just as much damage as the old one did?"

With her right hand supporting her chin, she contemplated that thought as Go-Go sat down beside her on the left side of the bed.

"That's good news to you, right? Now you can come up with something to stop Globby."

But Honey was less than interested.

"I'll give it a shot, but what if I trap some other hapless soul into the body of a hideous creature? Then I would be the villain."

Then Go-Go looked away, an idea coursing into the brain cells.

"Cheering people up isn't really my thing, but…just be happy! Even though you feel terrible, things will turnout great in the end!"

She tried to sound as cheerful as Honey was before her mood became so downtrodden over the many changes that occurred over the last 24 hours. But Honey saw it as her friend trying to be a pathetic optimist who just slept through the apocalypse.

"You know something, you are right. Being cheerful isn't really your thing."

Standing up to find a drink of water to drown her sorrows, Honey's pain came to a quick ending when she found herself in the arms of Baymax.

"Honey Lemon, it is okay to be said sometimes."

The robot's right hand hovered over Honey's ginger hair and patted it two times.

"There, there."

Honey's eyes narrowed against the level of Baymax's arms, which starting to get… _too white_ for her.

"Crying is pointless; it's time to face the darkness of reality."

Within the next five minutes, Honey equipped herself with her green gloves and borrowed Hiro's protective goggles. She used a toothpick, holding it in her right hand, to extract a dip of the substance Globby had left behind on Wasabi's chest plate. A vial in her left hand hovered under the toothpick before the drop of goo fell in.

"I'll need to create a compound to bring down Globby's elastic properties," Honey explained.

Fred came to her on her right.

"Hypothetically, if someone in this science room didn't know the meaning of this, his brain would explode from trying to pronounce it."

"In layman's terms," Honey darted her eyes at him. "I am going to make an 'un-sticky' ball."

"Well, I named the monster," argued Fred politely as he held a glass cup in his right hand. "So I think it should be my honor to take him down."

Honey ignored his words and concentrated her eyes on the beaker of blue liquid in her own right hand. It was, in her eyes, half-empty.

"Not enough Tripoline," she sighed. "My beaker is half-empty."

Recalling a similar situation, Go-Go decided that it was her turn to be the optimist.

"It's half-full!"

The others turned their concentration on her, which made Go-Go a bit embarrassed over using these words.

"I cannot believe I just said that."

Honey took very little time to contemplate on this slowly impending switch of personalities, she had no time to lose if they were to bring Globby to justice.

In the meantime, Texie was sitting at Big Boy's table, having an early dinner of chicken before the patrons arrived. Ed was with her on her left side, having a small plate of French fries and a can of Dr. Pepper to wash it down. The two relatives were in discussion about Globby, which they had both heard about on the news.

"The police are likely to get creamed by this guy since he's made of goo," Ed was saying. "If Spaldoni finds out that Tracy ran him over, he's likely to get pissed or relieved, especially since he's a modernist."

"He's Duke and Sugar's friend," Texie replied after gulping down a human bite of the chicken. "And since they're so worried about him, they might be able to get the job done regardless of Tracy running his ass over. But you must remember, that Big Boy did not consider them as official members of the Apparatus despite their nature, that's why only a careful selection of 30 criminals were invited to reform the organization with the help of Lord Deathstrike. It was also me who called up the criminals to the sit-down one year ago since I had already formed a friendship with Pruneface, despite his wife's objections."

Ed nodded his head yes.

"I understand Aunt Texie. But given the members who are still in jail, can we arrange some substitutes?"

"Perhaps. But I fear that Duke is going to lose his spine as much as his friend did when he was still a human being. I saw the fear in his eyes when he informed me about Dibs last night. Not everyone is meant for that kind of cowardice, anyone who is a member of the apparatus should be strong and supportive of each other."

She carved another piece of the chicken and held up the fork carrying it in her left hand, holding it out to Ed.

"What's that new piece the Thorndikes have been seeing? Patty Norris?"

"The mayor's daughter?" Ed was surprised.

His aunt drove the fork further in his direction by eight inches.

"Tell Ribs that once we reclaim the city; she's going to have an accident."

Her right hand left the carving knife on the table and picked up a glass of red wine. She took a quart of it just before Duke and Sugar stepped into the dining hall. Turning to face them, she asked.

"Any progress on your friend?"

"Other than the fact that he got run over?" Duke gave his defeating hands out. "We thought he was gone for good. Even if he survived, I wouldn't be sure exactly as to where he is."

"My only clue from Spaldoni's wiretaps would be his old stomping grounds."

Texie had heard no word from Spaldoni about Globby, for he was trying to keep up with his job and his current reputation as a lawyer on the right side of the law, his office chockablock with leftover lawsuits from damage fines caused by Globby and other miniscule offenses.

"And if he is not there?" Sugar asked suspiciously, putting her hands on her hips.

"Then keep looking. As the old saying goes; home is where the heart is. And if you see him…kill him, he'll dampen my mood if he's really as immortal as I believe him to be."

She smirked greedily, waiting to obtain the headset in her red, volatile hands.

After getting run over by Tracy, Globby had found his way up the path that the Crown Victoria left behind, recomposing himself with some of the remains of his body. After resting in an alleyway, he was back on his feet and on his way to Joe's Diner, a low-profile answer to Mike's Diner on 523 Broadway, where he and Felony Carl often socialize over breakfast, lunch and dinner among other locals and persons he knew very well. Some were smart enough to run to safety, catching the attention of Duke and Sugar as they were making their way out of the Club, while others met a fatal end thanks to Globby smashing them into the walls. He was sitting on a partially torn booth opposite from Felony Carl that close to the kitchen, regaling the events of his life from the last 24 hours.

"And then I made a pre-planned escape by having Tracy run me over with his car."

Of course, this wasn't entirely true, but Dibs liked to brag, it made him feel smarter than what he already was.

Felony Carl, who was too interested to take a bit out of his blueberry muffin, treated it casually.

"Smooth move," he muttered, having already accepted his friend's alteration.

Globby tried to be more interesting, but he had to admit his personal boredom.

"Well, things are going pretty great. But the minor hitch is that I cannot control my mutated body. I can't even swipe a poon that quickly."

His right arm extended forward, catching a stray white Siamese cat under the table opposite from them who had been looking for some food. Before the cat could claw his blood out, Felony Carl's left hand grabbed the hapless kitty and he gently stroked it while taunting his changed companion.

"Wow, you're an even shittier thief than before."

Having been underestimated most of his life by all of his friend and allies, the man formerly known as Dibs Richter let his anger out in a civil manner, with his fists curled, eyes narrowed and mouth frowning, he was ready to down Carl in a taste of his powers when five lights from the headband blinked on and off per one second, stimulating his anger on a visual meaning. Carl noticed the lights as well and was curious.

"What's that thing with the blinkin' lights on your forehead?"

Globby widened his eyes and looked up.

"Oh that? Just a billion-dollar invention that allows you to control stuff."

"Can it control your metamorphosis?"

As Felony Car asked this, Globby was certain to have a sign. A metaphorical sign in the form of Alistair Krei (the original's) portrait on the right-hand side of a bus that stopped before a troupe of passing cars.

"Maybe," he replied before taking the friendly image in. "But I don't know how it works…. but maybe _he_ does."

As he pointed his left index finger at the Krei-Book advertisement that was just leaving, his smile faded at the sounds of loading guns and a man's shout of:

"Too late, asshole!"

The voice belonged to Duke, who was holding a Ruger GP100 in his right hand with a sickening sneer of a glare on his mug. On his right hand side was Sugar, holding a custom made pistol in both hands that she once used to shoot peanuts at spoiled children. Globby was surprised, but not as surprised as he should have been, considering he abandoned them out of madness.

"It's about time you two caught up with me," he told them in a cocky tone. "Maybe you can help me get the Krei guy who made the headband."

But Duke shook his head, verbally refusing to cooperate.

"I don't give a flying fuck about clones who make fancy tech. If anyone's willing to use that headband for her own good, it'll be Texie Garcia."

Globby stood up, scoffing as he placed his hands on his hip, but very carefully to prevent them from getting stuck. Carl remained in his seat, continuing to stroke the cat.

"Oh, please," Globby waved his right hand snootily. "That traditionalist bitch couldn't operate a Windows 95."

"She could," Sugar kept her cool. "But personally, a headband is all she needs to bring San Fransokyo back under her control."

She narrowed her eyes further as she aimed the gun straight towards the creature's heart.

"Now hand over that headband before we kill the both of you!"

Globby had not anticipated his friends turning against him, but it had to happen sometime, for criminals are no one's friends on both sides of the law. Still he tried to reason with Duke.

"But I thought we were friends."

"Don't make me laugh," Duke sneered. "The only reason we befriended you was because we thought we could train you into becoming a master thief like I was, but I did it through raw talent. Now hand over the headband!"

"Only if you can catch me!"

Globby waved his left arm forwards, pushing against the glass window that exploded into sixty-six shards. Once the arm made contact with the brick apartment cross the street, Globby shot off to freedom before his former friends could fire off their guns. When he was out of view after climbing up the building, Duke and Sugar turned to Felony Carl, who was holding the cat protectively.

"What should we do with him, Duke?"

"Shug, our top priority is getting that headband, we'll deal with him later."

They turned in opposing clockwise directions and left the biker in peace.

It took almost a year to rebuild the Krei Tech headquarters in the Financial District from what was left of the original from last year's climatic battle against Big Hero 6 and the Apparatus. It had begun after the wake of the original Krei's death out of honor and remembrance. The building itself was exactly the same as the original, for the constructors used the exact blueprints to ensure that everything remained the same as the old one. In his office, located on the top floor of the fin, the clone of Alistair Krei had decided to make the time-wasting mistake of having himself replicated onto the head of his own version of Auguste Rodin's The Thinker, which he had wanted to allegorically express his intelligence, if not something a lot deeper than below the first layer of the surface. Yet his pose, which directly matched the preceding statue, was causing his arms to ache and his backside to wear out.

"Could you speed this along? I have a lot of things to think about."

Pure irony at it's best was what the sculptor, a thin man with black hair wrapped in a bun, large round glasses and an average sculptor's clothing, thought it was. The nude statue of Krei sitting on a rock with his right hand on his chin and upper left arm lying on his legs was 97% complete when the sculptor screamed from a force that pulled him out of the bursting window and down twenty stories to the entrance.

Not waiting to see the blood from his head staining the ground, Globby scooped Krei into his arms before the CEO had time to think about anything else and without even so much as screaming for help, the two swung away into the darkest heart of the Financial District.

Some twenty minutes later at the tenant, Hiro asked.

"So, Honey Lemon, how is that 'unsticky' ball coming along?"

Honey, sitting at the round table with Go-Go, Fred and her chemistry set of beakers, four vials, pincers and two measuring cups, was bored from the way she sighed.

"Who knows? At least good news is that I have not ruined another person's life in the last half-hour."

Baymax came from behind Hiro and Fred stood up, hands behind his back.

"Pretty gloomy for good news, Honey. Your sense of personality change is really starting to confuse me."

Hiro's eyes darted left to the robot standing behind him.

"Baymax, is there anything in your databanks that can help her?"

"Research shows that a pleasant image can improve a negative emotion. I will search for a pleasant image."

A yellow winged butterfly appeared on his monitor. Go-Go took her time to notice it.

"That almost looks like one of Honey's butterflies."

"He's just trying to butter me up."

Honey clenched her teeth with fury as she held a vial in her right hand. Go-Go saw it as a joke and she chuckled slightly.

"Isn't that just funny when you compare 'butterfly' with 'butter me up'?"

"That's just nonsense!"

"I thought you liked adorable nonsense?"

But Honey's reply was flat and deadbeat.

"I am not into nonsense anymore."

Wasabi, sitting by the computer with Sora, Goofy and Donald, was watching the online news. Alicia was being interviewed by Christmas Early against a background of a window broken in the rudimentary shape of a circle.

"Uh, guys? I think we should be concentrating on this."

He turned up the volume by 40 percent.

"..our CEO Alistair Krei was taken through his office through that window by the monster we've all agreed to call Globby."

"What about the sculptor who was thrown out of that window? Any personal respects?"

Alicia shook her head no at Christmas' question.

"None that I can think other than well wishes to his surviving relatives."

Then she turned to face the camera.

"And if you're watching this Mr. Krei…We pray for your safety and I'm going home early."

She left the screen, leaving the team to form a meeting around the computer as they were already there, watching. They were already familiar with the clone through reputation as he still had the memories of the team.

"To think he'd be able to cheat death through cloning," Hiro told the others. "It's almost unfair that _some_ people never get a chance at doing that."

"Like you and Tadashi?" Sora just had to ask. "Maybe if you made a clone, you'd be satisfied with your loss."

Hiro frowned.

"That idea is beyond my limits. Krei Tech is probably top secret and I wish you didn't have to bring him up."

"Why?" Sora asked sardonically. "I should think you'd be used to his loss by now."

"I—!"

Hiro relaxed himself, drove Tadashi away from his mental imagery and told the others.

"Let's just rescue the clone before the city wastes it's money on another senseless tragedy."

They went back to the garage and suited up, ready to make amends to the clone whose host they could not save.

At the topmost point of the Salesforce Tower between 1st and Fremont, Globby was climbing the antenna, the cloned CEO behind his back. By the time he had reached it, the sun had gone down and the lights of the building were not enough to blind him behind his night-vision goggles. News reporters and the Crimestoppers, who had managed to pick up Globby's trail from stains and puddles left behind on the sidewalks and buildings, including witnesses who had spotted the monster swinging through the Financial District, stood by the entrance with a squad of firemen holding a net, should either of them fall. Sugar and Duke, who had also heard the news, stood away from Tracy, who was flanked by Chief Patton and Sam Catchem. Krei, however, was protesting.

"You can't do this to me! I'm rich! I'm connected!"

He took one look at the city shrinking away his feet and the dark sky entering his eyesight when he realized…

"This is way too high!"

As he curled his knees up to his feet, Globby looked back at him from over his left shoulder, demanding.

"Just tell me how the goddamned headband works! And maybe, just maybe, I'll let you live!"

Krei was not sure if he actually liked the sound of that, as he was tossed in a 120-degree angel down to the balcony of the spire. He looked up to see the headband under the purple skin of gelatin.

"That's my neurotransmitter!" He pointed an accusing right index finger at Globby. "It's worth billions!"

He stood up with clawed fingers.

"I want it back!"

And he dove his hands into Globby's head, pulling as hard he could, bringing pain to the creature who tried to pull back, extending his neck by six feet.

"GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY HEAD YOU BASTARD!"

But the clone was not giving up just yet.

A Bell Jet Ranger helicopter for the Tribune hovered twenty feet above the spire. Bluff Dunder, Christmas Early and Wendy Wichel were on board. Each one took different turns at announcing from the came panted on the dashboard of the chopper.

"This is Bluff Dunder with Wendy Wichel and Christmas Early, bringing you _Monster Watch: Live in the Sky!_ "

They cruised around the balcony as the efforts between Krei and Globby brought the cloned CEO over the edge, dangling nine feet away from safety. Fear coursed through his veins, breaking into fever point before Globby's neck and head pulled him back up. The monster warned him.

"I might drop you if I can't control my body with your invention."

Globby swung Krei three times from the pendulum effect of the recovery before he dropped on his own.

"There is nothing to learn," Krei explained. "Just. Think. Can you think about anything? If you can, then it will naturally work."

Globby looked at his right arm in despair.

"I would, but nothing comes naturally to me."

The sound of a jet engine's roar burst through his ears and sure enough, Krei was looking at Baymax, carrying Hiro on his back, Honey Lemon on his left, Go-Go on his right, Fred being carried from his left hand and Wasabi clinging to the robot's right hand as they had done once before on the journey to Akuma Island last year. Following them was Sora on Keyblade Glider, Goofy on the left wing, Donald on the right. All members, with the exception of Sora's animal friends, were dressed in their armor.

"Now I remember! The superheroes who tried to save the original me."

The team and their allies landed on the balcony in crouched action positions.

"You could have gotten here sooner, but…"

His eyes darted left and right while looking up, trying to find a good answer. Then he found it, explaining while crossing his arms.

"I am perfectly fine."

Go-Go sneered a friendly smile.

"Save the thanks for later. Right now, I'd like to knock this asshole off the edge."

Wasabi activated his plasma blades. Their power was just about as furious as he was.

"Your reign of terror stops right here, Globby!"

He leapt into air before Globby fired three balls each at the charging Negro, who swiped at them left and right, but was unable to stop one from covering Baymax's visor in a thick layer of purple.

"My sensors are impaired."

As Baymax's strong gloves tried to removed the sticky substance, Hiro opened his right hand and closed it as soon a 20 inch whip made from his microbots (which were stored in his glove compartments) appeared in full view, looking as limp as a regular whip should be. He glared at the creature and seethed with fury.

"No one does that to my brother's invention!"

He threw the whip back and swung it forward, the end wrapping around Globby's neck. Coughing, wheezing and his eyes starting to bulge, he wildly flapped his arms up and down, which Wasabi managed to decapitate before the helicopter shined it's spotlight on the team. Honey Lemon shielded her eyes with the back of her left hand and the others knew that they were about to gain some unneeded fame. Hiro silently prayed in Japanese that Aunt Cass wasn't watching.

"Big Hero 6 has joined Globby on the roof!" Christmas Early shouted into the headset of her microphone. "Stay tuned for second-by-second updates on this situation."

Everyone's attention turned from the helicopter to Globby, especially Honey, who held out the purple orb in her right hand.

"Globby, this will make you normal again!"

"Normal is overrated! I'm starting to like this new body of mine."

Sora shook his head as he aimed the Kingdom Key at the creature.

"Why should we care what you think? Just let Krei go!"

This only encouraged Globby to suspend Krei from the balcony at a 25 degree angle.

"I have made a lot of bad decisions lately, don't force me to do another one."

"He is in need of positive reinforcement," said Baymax from beneath the goo.

Fred turned to Honey Lemon, who placed her right hand on her heart and tried to deny any chance of help, given her responsibility into Globby's transformation.

"Don't look at me. I'm the one who should have been more responsible with my purse."

"But super-optimism is your thing!"

Go-Go gripped her friend's lower arms like any regular friend should. When Honey took in her words, she looked down for a duo of seconds and turned her eyes to Globby, wondering if it would be possible for him to change his way. As Fred had previously mentioned during the team's formation, the villains would be just sent to jail and no more, but this was merely his black and white view of the world and Honey was hoping to prove him wrong. Behind her, Wendy watched the scene from the safety of the helicopter.

"The superheroes appear to be working on some personal issues."

Go-Go tried to be the voice of reason.

"We don't need another pessimistic girl, I've got that covered."

To prove her point she shrugged her arms and dipped her head forwards.

"Your uppity attitude may be annoying at first, but it takes some getting used to."

Honey clasped her hands to her chin and hugged her friend, whispering softly.

" _Gracias_ , Go-Go, you're the best."

Go-Go's arms pushed Honey back away from her personal boundary and resumed her no-nonsense attitude.

"Now make that freak of nature feel good about himself."

Honey turned to the creature with a voice of mutual sympathy.

"Listen, Globby. I know thing look bad now, but there is always a silver lining."

And she represented that silver lining by holding her right hand out, adding.

"You can make this work!"

Picking it up from her communicator in their helicopter, Bluff Dunder reported.

"The pink girl is telling the monster that there is a silver lining in store for him."

But Globby had his doubts. Krei hoped that the substance would hold him long enough for Honey to make him see the error of his ways.

"Oh come on. Nobody believes in me. Not Sugar, not Duke, not Carl and especially not you guys. You don't even know me."

Honey reassured him with an innocent smile.

"Before, you were just a common purse thief. Now, if you dedicated yourself to making the best out of this situation like we do, you can truly be special. After all, nobody but you, has abilities like you."

The words struck Globby like cord that pulling his soul away from the path of sin and onto the path of virtue. He cocked his head to the right by an inch, asking.

"You really think so?"

"I know."

"You're right," Globby's right hand brought Krei back to the safety of the balcony. "This is a new beginning to me."

Turning clockwise, Krei clasped his hands together, his tone informing the others that there was no patience in his voice.

"That's very touching, but now, I want my prototype back!"

His hands lunged for Honey's orb, which she took a step back out of surprise.

From inside the helicopter, Wendy urged the pilot, a balding man with black sunglasses, grey moustache, and white uniform with a black tie, in a rather demanding tone.

"Get us a closer look!"

Before her fellow passengers could agree with her, the pilot compiled…and strong winds from the rotating blades of the chopper created a wind so strong that Krei had found himself falling all the way down to the hard-paved street. Globby, remembering a glimpse of the sculptor who had died in a similar situation, stretched his upper body down the building as fast as he could.

"I! AM! SPECIAAAAAAALLL!"

He decried his unique abilities as the crowds surrounding the lobby of building came closer and closer into his goggles. Duke and Sugar, watching the fall from their vantage point, rushed over as soon as Globby came within range of their fingers. Globby could have felt the bony fingers of his ex-comrade penetrating his cranium before he had any time to catch a glimpse of Duke in order to confirm his suspicions. By the time he did, he was retracting back to the top and his former friends were exchanging glances of doubt.

"I hope Texie won't hate us for butchering the job," Sugar quivered. "I mean there's always next time."

At the top, the team watched Globby's somersaulted upper body return right side up with Krei in his arms. With his head close to the left side of his face, Krei felt embarrassed at the thought of him almost kissing the creature who had threatened and saved his life at the same time.

"This is a little awkward," he muttered. "Should I say, 'thanks'?"

Globby lifted Krei to the ground and pointed his right index finger at Honey.

"Thank her, she believed in me. My days of being a small-time loser of a purse snatcher are behind me…"

" _Correcto,_ " Honey cheered. "Your morals tell you, that you are better than that."

She mentally thanked the invisible forces of nature for helping her unintended victim…but then Globby said.

"I am and that's why I am going to be a supervillain."

And to the distress of Honey and the others, Globby placed his fists to his hips and formed an imposing, taciturn glare. Her dreams of bringing Globby back into the light, and a possible position for him on the team, were dashed into oblivion. Her guilt was slowly returning and the world, as it had currently seemed, was crashing down back at her very, very hard.

"No! I did not mean that you would—"

"The world come to fear the name of….GLOBBY!"

And without even so much as a bolt of lightning for a dramatic effect, Globby brought his arms to the air, spun counterclockwise and cackled in his throat and he fell nine stories away from the building and swung in a manner very similar to Spider-Man. Then Krei noticed something else that he hadn't felt since the moment Globby brought him back to the balcony.

"That son of a bitch took my wallet!"

"Why bring that up?" Goofy asked in a small hint of hidden intelligence. "Were you going to pay us?"

Krei was about to say yes before Fred interrupted.

"Forget the money! I think he's gonna make the supervillain thing work."

Honey could only stare at the horror she had crafted, and it wasn't even conceived from a H. P. Lovecraft novel. But maybe she had to admit that Fred had a point; Globby was as happy as he could be, swinging left and right all through the Financial District, going slantways, frontways, backways, rolling himself into a ball and flattening himself into a puddle. But in spite of the both of them accepting th3eir fates for the better, Honey believed that there was still a trace of goodness inside the man formally known as Dibs Richter.

As he approached the glass building of 340 Fremont, his face fell at the sight of…

"The Shadow!"

The black caped man who had spoken his own name was enough to distract Globby's senses, bringing his swinging to a stop as the Shadow disappeared with a laugh far eviler than his own and Globby himself was plastered against the window of an office on the ninth floor. He had already dropped himself the ground by somersaulting before one of the women who worked there, a ginger-haired Caucasian in a pink dress named Rizzy, had time to notice. But Globby was certain of one thing: he had to work on his treachery skills.

Back at Club Ritz, Spaldoni arrived, pondering the sparse population of gamblers and drinkers when Texie came down the stairs in her silver-green cocktail dress. She was followed by Ed and Ribs, who were still wearing their casual outfits and with open arms, she greeted the lawyer with a friendly attitude.

"Giorgio! What a lovely surprise! Anything interesting happening today? Because as you can see, business has been going quite slow since two nights ago."

"I was just stopping by on my way to dinner," Spaldoni explained. "I wanted to make sure that Duke and Sugar had performed commendably on retrieving Globby's headset."

Texie widened her eyes.

"How did you know?"

"I saw it on the news. Didn't think about bothering to inform you since I heard from the wiretaps that you already told those two about their goopy friend."

"Were you eavesdropping on me?" Texie placed her palms against her hips.

"A girl's gotta be safe is she's to be the new queen of San Fransokyo."

Texie resumed her smile, complacent over Spaldoni's safety of her.

"Speaking of Duke and Sugar, I think they should be getting back from that little fiasco on the tower. IT is getting late after all."

Some fifteen seconds later, Duke and Sugar came in empty handed. Spaldoni looked over at them from Texie's right shoulder and she turned clockwise to face them. Before she could ask, Duke breathed.

"We couldn't get it. We almost had it but then Dibs went back up again. He's swinging around like the goddamned Spider-Man by now."

Texie's smile and her emotions began to falter.

"How could you miss one headset that is easily extractable from a living shit-face?"

"Calm down, Texie," Spaldoni sensed her temper starting to rise. "At least they didn't kill the clone."

Texie spun counterclockwise to face the lawyer again. She could hardly stand his sense of logic.

"At least they didn't kill the clone?"

The mobstress shook her head in disbelief, unsure of who to trust anymore.

"Easy for you to say, ever since Hamada and Krei were killed and Callaghan got booked into the hoosegow, the Apparatus' control over the city has been in chaos. Even the whole city has gone crazy with these new superpowered criminals popping up. They'll be impossible to take down even with Big Hero 6's help. I hope that Globby comes back someday so I can rip that headset off of his sorry ass myself. Then I can use it to control the elements, maybe even hypnotize every single one of our rivals into working for us."

Spaldoni just nodded with a plain and simple: "You will. When he comes back."

Texie pondered over the possibility of his return when Spaldoni inquired.

"Is there any property that he owns?"

"Only an abandoned hangar in San Rafael," came the reply from Sugar. "Krei's been using it as some kind of top secret laboratory. You don't believe the clone is as smart as the original, do you?"

"Maybe," Spaldoni shrugged. "But with the Apparatus in need of expanding beyond Broadway, it would be good for business if we shared the place when Krei is not around. Especially since his company used to be in Big Boy's pocket before he was arrested."

"What about the iron works place where the microbots were made?" Texie asked. "No one will able to notice us there."

Spaldoni thought about it for three seconds, remembering the damp conditions of the place.

"In spite of the Hamada kid's discovery of it last year, I suppose it would be a good choice since we still own a few traces of that property. And keep your eyes open for any other traditionalists, Texie. We are going to reform the Apparatus."

He kissed her right cheek and walked his way out the door. Texie beamed sinisterly, she was looking forward to the extra amount of help.


	4. Issue 188

Virtual reality was the closest thing that Hiro could get to exploring the mysteries of the underwater world without having to deal with the relentless task of holding his breath. It was somewhere in the middle of the North Pacific that the VR headset had taken him to, wondering if Tadashi had gotten a chance to see this marvelous beauty. In a world of inner peace, he did not have to feel hatred, undeserving injustice and the pain of dedicating his life to the city as the life of a fish was nothing but tranquil complacency. He was astounded, enamored, engrossed by the sights of clownfish, royal grammas, blue tangs and Moorish idols as he swam through nothing but open air, seeing only his hands in front of him. The blue tang began to nip at his right index finger before he heard the soft, sweet voice of…

"Mr. Hamada?"

Followed by the arrival of a bloodthirsty great white shark with an even harsher voice that Hiro knew all too well.

"Mr. Hamada!"

Escaping the shark's jaws, Hiro removed the headset to be met by the cheerful Miss Lane and the grumpy Professor Granville. The latter was holding a folder with red, green and blue tags at the top under her right arm while Miss Lane's hands were free. Now back in Tadashi's laboratory, Hiro set the headset down and stood up, trying to be professional.

"Professor Granville! Miss Lane! I was just taking a little break. All that studying can wear a person out."

Professor Granville turned clockwise by fifty degrees, her eyebrows narrowed to preserve her stature of pragmatic superiority.

"Don't play me, young man. I can spot a slacker with my naked eyes."

Hiro's mood went from sly to innocent. His cheeks blushing as red as his shirt and hands behind his back, he asked.

"So what's up, ladies?"

"Given that you are a short fifteen-year-old surrounded by college students," Professor Granville began. "it can present certain social…and emotional challenges."

"Not really," Hiro's eyes went back before clasping his hands. "But I am sure that whatever you want me to do, it will prove you wrong."

Professor Granville's lips mustered a smile of her own. Turning to face the door, she ordered.

"Follow us."

And so he did, nervous and quaking.

Three halls down led to an automatic door, opening to reveal a room that was lit by five shades of green and a large round light of blue. Hiro peered at the chemistry set of glassware on his right, carrying the turquoise liquid that bubbled and cracked before Professor Granville's voice turned his attention to the hunched figure sitting at the table who had its back turned to them.

"Mr. Hamada, meet Karmi Iosama."

And she said the name with a trill at the "r".

The figure turned counterclockwise, holding a pair of green shotgun sized syringes in it's left hand. It placed the syringes into the upper left pocket of its white laboratory coat, and that moment was followed by opening up the surgical mask in its right hand and the goggles covering its eyes onto the forehead to reveal a very pretty girl of Indian descent. She had that shade of a Hershey's chocolate bar in her hair while her eyes were as brown as chestnuts. Under the coat, she wore a yellow-cream turtleneck shirt, while her pants were as brown as the earth and her earlobes were decorated with one round ruby red earring on each side. All of the sudden, the lights turned on and the girl known as Karmi Iosama called out.

"Hiro Hamada! I have heard so much about you! When Professor G and Miss M asked me to socialize with you, I thought this was going to be super great! You and your brother were my greatest idols!"

Hiro blushed, seeing a girl around his age arose some suspicions in his mind that Professor Granville and Miss Lane were setting the two kids up on a blind date, so he took a step back and waved his left hand nervously.

"Hi."

Professor Granville's head turned to Hiro, explaining.

"Karmi is, at this moment, the youngest student to enroll here. So she is about to know what you are going through."

Hiro was confused.

"I am going through something…?"

"Yes," Professor Granville added. "Now here is what we are going to do."

Hiro wagged his left index finger left and right.

"Us."

But Professor Granville shoved the folder behind Hiro's hood and pushed it and him four steps over to Karmi.

"No, you and her."

Hiro looked carefully at Karmi and could see that was speaking beneath her teeth.

"So super," the girl winced.

"Miss Lane and I want you to socialize with Karmi for at least a whole week. I think you can learn something from her. Socialization experiences and whatever you kids do these days."

Hiro turned clockwise to the left toward his professor.

"Sure," he admitted rapidly. "I can do that. Can I start Thursday morning?"

But Professor Granville's tone was _EXTREMELY_ serious. It was enough to make Miss Lane cower behind her back without putting her hands on her.

"EVERY DAY! ALL WEEK AND KEEP A JOURNAL! I want a full report on Friday!

She turned clockwise as well and left the room. Miss Lane, following behind her, had her doubts.

"I'm not sure if I like her," she whispered to Granville's left ear. "She's too…sweet. There must be something dark about her."

"She'll be perfect for Hiro."

And I apologize to admit that Miss Lane was right, or at least the context of her words. When the two ladies left the room, Karmi narrowed her eyebrows and a sudden burst of detestation flowed into her soul. She edged her face against Hiro's personal boundary with a nasty scowl.

"Here's the deal, _bevakooph_. You stay out of my face, my space, my work, my hobbies and maybe, just _maybe_ …I can consider you as a true friend."

Obeying incredulously, Hiro took three steps back from Karmi's provocative right index finger and muttered nervously.

"Okay. But what ever happened to hanging out?"

"I expected you to question that," Karmi told him irritably. "You think you are just a white blood cell…but you are nothing more than a red one."

And she scurried off to her work table, leaving Hiro in the midst of confusion. It seemed that he had to deal with a younger version of Professor Granville, or perhaps even, her surrogate daughter.

Hiro couldn't imagine how unsafe the lab looked with a variety of tools and chemicals that looked hazardous to the naïve mind. And on the center table, with a surface made of Carrera marble, there seemed to be one that sparked some interest into Karmi, who was looking at a family of round orange cells through a curved microscope. She was writing the incredible details down on a white tablet, the white electronic pencil in her right hand.

"Absolute mutated virus, Day 57."

She moved from the eyepiece lenses toward the base, speaking to the petri dish in a motherly voice.

"Looking good, A1-004."

Hiro could not help but ask.

"So…you talk to the viruses?"

Karmi sounded almost offended by that comment. Her piercing eyes laid a fixating glare on Hiro, and the rest of her looked disgusted.

"That was a private conversation for your information. A1-004 is dear friend of mine."

He right foot moved the swivel chair twenty inches over to the table of virus, all encased in petri dishes, each one with uniquely placed stickers: a gold star, a pink heart, a brown bunny, a cow's head with a baby blue bow on the left ear, and a black cat on a yellow stick. Karmi pointed the end of her electronic pen on the cat stick petri dish, specifying the contaminants.

"As are R69-5, L4-382 and 95-414, whom I'm still getting to know because I just bought him."

Hiro turned his head to the left by four degrees and muttered.

"Weirdo…"

Karmi's mood went from frilly to grouchy.

"You think talking to viruses is weird? I've heard tales about you talking to a mechanical snowman. At least my virus are actually alive compared to that machine."

Hiro crossed his arms, trying to be defense.

"His name is Baymax and my brother built him to cure the sick. Something you seem to be the polar opposite of."

"Helping people?" Karmi sneered an evil smile. "From what I've gathered, your brother was a retard who thought that helping people was his forte and look where it got him! Six feet under!"

Hiro wanted his hands to grab Karmi's throat and choke her into an apology but trying to keep up with Professor Granville's assignment was his primary concern.

"Can we just move on?" he shouted, annoyed and spreading his hands from his chest. "I have to put something in the journal for Granville and Lane."

And he held out his iPhone, intent on recording the transpiring events on video. But Karmi just glared at the boy genius and rose her nose up into the air like she was some kind of a snooty bitch.

"Not my problem. Just make me look good, because…"

Karmi seemed to have had an amazing ability to sense danger a mile away, for her mood had suddenly returned to "walking on sunshine" mode when Professor Granville and Miss Lane came passing by the door. Once they were in, she spoke the right words.

"I want this to be a wonderful experience for you!"

Hiro's eyes went to the two ladies and then back to his partner, his eyebrows furrowing.

"You're a very good liar," said the boy genius in a voice that he hoped no one would be able to hear.

Karmi forced a smile that she kept all way until after Professor Granville's voice left her ears.

"Karmi, take Mr. Hamada to lunch in dining hall. My treat."

Holding her notebook close to her heart, Karmi looked back at Hiro, replying under her teeth.

"So super."

"Get acquainted you two and have fun!" cheered Miss Lane.

But Professor Granville kept her stern, sour face, correcting.

"MANDITORY FUN!"

Karmi made a good impression of making it sound like her heart was going to burst.

"Super great idea! On it!"

The ladies left down the hall and as the sounds of their footsteps died away into silence, Karmi turned clockwise back to the table and picked up a green colored virus, cradling it in her palms.

"I'm sorry, A1-004. I know we were going to do a DNA extraction over lunch, but…I'm just going to have to incubate you a little bit longer."

She placed the virus, codenamed A1-004 into the round incubator and the disk slot carried it all the way in. Within four seconds, she stomped out the door.

"Let's go, boy genius."

"And Granville thinks that I am the one who needs socialization help?" Hiro wondered out loud. "This is turning into a nightmare!"

Hiro spent the first half of his meal in silence, having eaten a beef burrito while Karmi had Caesar salad. Of course, the two exchanged glances, sometimes going from smiles to frowns as they did, but as he stirred his meal and reflected on Tadashi's action of putting him in the school, Hiro felt very sad that he had to be partners with a girl who about a year older than him who had no respect for the dead. And so, feeling curious, he mustered a smile and asked.

"So Karmi, do you have any siblings to talk about?"

Karmi's eyes went straight into Hiro's, while her right hand emotionlessly held the cup of water up to her mouth and she let it spill into her throat. After setting the liquid down, she replied.

"Who wants to know? Marys would have loved you more than me."

Hiro's eyes blinked thrice, assuming the most obvious answer. Then he asked specifically.

"Is Marys your older or younger sister?"

Karmi slammed the glass down on the table, a bit pissed you might say.

"I have no time to talk about family lives! Why not we talk about your personal hobbies besides talking to that snowman of a machine?"

As she breathed herself to a slow, normal, human air, Hiro seemed to have agreed with her.

"Good, because I think personal hobbies are better than school."

Karmi's left eyebrow rose by two inches.

"How better?"

"Let's just say that outside of school, I am passionate about…carousing…in bot fights."

"Illegal ones?"

"No!" Hiro's eyes darted back to the left. "I mean bot fights that are more…safe."

He sighed, lying his hands on the table.

"Any hobbies that you do out of school?"

Karmi straightened her upper body, trying to look professional.

"Well, I designed a pair of cyberglasses since the ones that were available through online mail order were sold out. I often used them to store backup data on my viruses and other personal information."

"I made a pair of my own as well," Hiro replied cheerfully.

"And yours probably contains nothing but boring information on healthcare."

Hiro shrunk back into his seat, figuring it would be best not to interfere with Karmi's personal matters anymore.

* * *

"Who is this Karmi Iosama? That's what I'd like to know. Is she anything like Kairi?"

Sora asked this to Hiro at about 7:30 that night while on patrol. He was watching the young genius pace back and forth, shoulders front, head craned and curled fists as Baymax stood on guard with him, at the top of a fourteen story office building on Jackson.

"I'll bet she buries Kairi," Hiro fumed. "But I don't know what the fuck her problem is. She disrespects Tadashi's memory, she does not appear to be interested in me and she's obsessed with viruses!"

Baymax interluded this tirade with his own thoughts.

"Without a thorough scanning, I am unable to determine if she suffers from any health anomalies."

Leiko Tanaka, under her current identity of Go-Go Tomago, spoke to them through the intercoms on their helmets.

"Are you really not getting this? From what I have heard through Professor Granville and Miss Lane, Karmi has had no friends, got herself bullied in schools because she was too smart, not to mention that fact she was a female and the only she got into the school was because she was a young genius who specialized in viruses among other things that seem to correspond with you."

"That almost sounds like me."

Hiro was at a loss for words, imagining Sam, Kano and Geisa tormenting the poor girl the same way he did when he was a lot younger. Now that he was in college, there was no bullying that he had to look forward to, since so far, he managed to get through the first weeks without getting into the paths of any bullies who populated the grounds.

As Goofy and Donald scanned the streets with a pair of black binoculars, watching from the edge and careful not to fall down, Go-Go added.

"You sort of also, took her thing: you know, being the youngest genius of the school."

"I'd rather have my own thing," Hiro defended himself. "And it's not like I don't want to have anything to do with her, I just…wish that she could love me in return."

Baymax's head turned to the left by eleven degrees and a green grid appeared on his visor.

"My scanner is picking up a disturbance nine blocks to the west."

"And there's my thing now!" the boy genius known as Hiro praised as he climbed to Baymax's back with his magnetic palms and 500 microbots in his pockets.

They took off into the sky and Go-Go jumped down into the street. Sora tossed his Keyblade in the air to activate the rider, hopped on and Donald and Goofy were hanging from the wings as they followed the white trail of smoke left from Baymax's wake.

In the deepest corner of Jackson Street, were an odd pair of women breakdancing to the beat of "We Got the Beat" by the Go-Gos as a round electric ball of blue-white energy hovered nine feet above them. The older woman, who appeared to be round with fair skin and black eyes, had tan-blonde hair with a lilac headband between her front bangs and her forehead and wore a black short dress with an electric purple lightning bolt down the front of it, a light pink belt with a diamond shaped cyan buckle, black high heel boots and black gauntlets with electric blue powerlines. This was Barb Roxon, whose 20-year-old daughter Juniper was slender and had a darker shade of her mother's hair. They both wore the same dresses and accessories (pink star earrings, ice-blue eyeshadow and purple-pink lipstick), but while Barb had purple sleeves, tights and leg warmers, Juniper's black dress had no sleeves and she wore a black shawl on top of the dress, adding pink tights and legwarmers to go with the electric theme of their charade.

Barb Roxon had come from a family of neo-traditionalists, traditionalists who lived a post 1940s lifestyle; to be precise, the 1980s as she had been born on July the Sixteenth of the first year in that decade. Her love of singing and dancing had come from MTV and popular music related films such as _Flashdance_ and _Footloose_ , to the point in which she remembered all of the steps. Her family was not wealthy, mind you and for that, she had insanely high dreams of making it big so that she and her hungry, hippo family could gain a seat in the lap of luxury. She went to various dancing schools around San Fransokyo, specialized in electricity and hypnotism while taking courses at the Institute of Technology and only about twenty years ago did she give birth to her daughter Juniper.

Juniper had never really known her father, an actor and a singer who had been fatally hit on the head with a falling klieg light while preforming the songs of Journey when she was still a baby. It was Barb who had married him for his money and it was she who killed him by sabotaging the stage lights with a wrench loosening the bolts, for she had grown fed up with the way he had hoarded most of the money for himself. This caused Juniper to be brought up with a pure feminine touch, but if there was one thing she inherited from her father, it was her independence, her beautiful singing voice and her sense of taking risks, like disobeying her own mother for example.

Tonight, they were cruising down the long avenue, passing an ATM machine. Their backs were turned to the audience who were literally under their spell, for the electric orb seemed to have hypnotic properties that would, quite obviously, turn it's victims into appraising fools who brought nothing but cheers and good wishes to it's owner with no signs of seeing them as bad people. Bard turned her head over to Juniper and ordered.

"Okay, Juniper. Practice is over! I want to see if you have what it _takes!_ "

"Oh, you know I have it, Ma." sneered her daughter, wobbling her upper body back and forth with fists curled before her. "Cause I'm about to bring it!"

She got on her knees and twirled clockwise about once, slamming her right foot down to summon the electrical sparks before she twirled five feet into the air and landed on her knees with open arms.

Her mother, being a sultry professional sort, bounced her breasts in conjunction with the music and brought her own fists forward, channeling her electrical powers.

The orb could create spotlights by changing its color through a hidden flashlight located in the core, for it shined one upon Bard and turned off, turning on again over Juniper, who was bringing her wrists to her knees. Interestingly, the flashlight could create two spotlights at the same time. The mother and daughter faced opposing directions and it was Barb's wave of energy that attracted the three ATM machines like a lightning rod. Juniper's bolts of electricity could also override the other three machines opposite of the street. Then Barb blew kisses in the shape of electrical hearts, her left hand guiding them to the lampposts that flickered on and off.

Juniper's right hand pulled a middle-aged man in spectacles, a dull red sweater and brown-black pants onto the street, twirling him twice before he was dipped and pushed upwards into the crowd. The man was suspicious at first, but he quickly fell under the effects of the orb. The crowd itself, including the lucky male, cheered for joy as the two jiggled their shoulders up and down like sluts in a whorehouse.

With their power reaching to it's extent, the ATM machines began to ring and flows of dollar bills flew out, gracefully and rapidly before the machines exploded. Some who had a little bit of sense left grabbed a few that had dropped onto the ground, but the two were quick to grab whatever they could until they felt a breeze…and it was not a simple gale.

The wake of Baymax and the Keyblade Glider's rockets left a whoosh and a cold wheeze before its passengers leapt into action. Seeing them, Barb and Juniper mentally ordered the orb to stop the song.

"I'm not sure what is going on here," Hiro told them suspiciously. "But if there is any good within you, I suggest that you kindly return all that money."

Juniper just dropped her jaw like she had been egged on and gave Hiro her right middle finger.

"Fuck you, midget. I AM A STAR! YOU DON'T INTERRUPT A STAR WHEN SHE IS LEAVING THE STAGE!"

Sora walked up to them, asking.

"A star, huh? And who might you be?"

Barb was too happy to reciprocate to that question, she twirled five times in the air despite her weight and landed the moment she crossed her arms and spoke her name.

"I'm Barb!"

Juniper came alongside her left, imitating the pose like a perfect reflection.

"And I'm Juniper!"

"And together we are…High Voltage!"

At the very moment that the duo said their name in unison, the orb floated in-between them, producing the words "HIGH VOLTAGE" with the orb occupying the space.

"Wow," Goofy was moony over the ladies, taken aback by their charm. "Electric bands!"

Baymax pointed his right index finger upwards with a warning.

"Electricity may be fatal and cause severe burns."

Go-Go, without any hesitation, reached for the disks on her back and brought them out.

"I've got this."

She charged forwards at Barb who was bouncing her jiggly bodice into the dance. Then in perfect synchronization, she and her daughter were tapping their right foots down on the street, Go-Go jumped and dodged before a strong blast blew her all the way past Hiro, Baymax, Goody, Donald and Sora and into the pavement. Juniper was twirling with victory as her mother gave the command.

"Juniper, I need more flare on those backflips and more smackle in that smile!"

"On it!"

As Donald and Goofy readied their weapons, Donald intent on giving the girl a taste of her own medicine with his lightning, Juniper somersaulted into the air, surrounded by sparks of electricity and clasped her hands together. Donald, holding the mage's staff in his right hand, was quick to scream "THUNDER!" and a yellow bolt of lightning came down from the sky directly upon Juniper.

But this was all Juniper needed to channel her energy, no matter how painful the lightning bolt was. She tried to resist and channel it as she moved her coupled hands back and pushed them forward, a cloud of electricity going straight into Baymax's heart.

Hiro landed in Sora's arms as Baymax succumbed to the electrical overload and fell on his behind, activating his wings in and out. He took off leaving the two boys to chase after him. Go-Go got up to her feet and ordered the stunned animals:

"We need to power these two bitches down."

Bouncing to the beat once more, Barb ordered.

"Juniper! Electric fence!"

She created a rail-track made of electricity, aiming it toward Juniper's fisted hands.

"Let's go! Two, five, seven, eight!"

Goofy and Go-Go threw their shield and disks at the two, but even literal electric fences are much stronger than magnetic disks or shields of valor, and they came straight back at the two. Donald, hoping to protect his noble ally of limited intellect, jumped into Goofy's arms, but before he could form a shield around them, the shield and disk struck Go-Go and Goofy's abdomens, flooring them.

As Hiro and Sora chased after Baymax, they could not believe the very sight of the crowd cheering "Juniper! Juniper!" ("and Barb!") as the mother and daughter stuffed whatever dollar bills they could stuff into their round duffle bags. Hiro confronted the crowd and aimed his open right hand at the criminals, screeching in exasperation.

"ARE YOU PEOPLE BLIND?! THEY ARE ROBBING AN ATM!"

He felt a blast of energy coming into his chest by one from Barb's left hand, followed by another one delivered to Sora before she corrected.

"Like Hell we are! We're telling a story through song and dance!"

Juniper threw the bags and the orb into their car, a neon blue 1985 Camaro that was decorated with powerlines. They jumped into the car, the orb started the engine and with Juniper driving it, they screeched off into the night.

Now that the crowd was away from the orb's influence, they began to see the damaged machines and dollar bills lying on the sidewalk that Barb and Juniper had left behind. They immediately called the police as Go-Go got up to her feet and so did Hiro, who saw Baymax twirling in the air and he ordered (with his left index finger pointing down to the street):

"BAYMAX! GET DOWN!"

Baymax's engines turned off and he fell three stories toward the street, leaving a crater in his wake.

When Dick Tracy, the press and the Crimestoppers arrived at the scene, he crossed his arms at Hiro and Sora (he wasn't too angry over their failure) and demanded.

"Well, somebody had better explain to me why all logic failed to exist when the crowd cheered for this…High Voltage."

Hiro and Sora recounted the events up until now, added some of his hypothetical details on their powers and the police reports were handed over to Christmas Early, who was on the scene, warning all citizens not to go within ten meters of the two females known as Barb and Juniper.

* * *

The news of High Voltage's ATM robbing fling spread through the Club Ritz like a bonfire from Dante's Inferno when Texie Garcia read about it in a column from the morning edition of the _Daily San Fransokyo Tribune._

 _If those neo-traditionalists can try to outfox me,_ Texie thought. _Then I think I can even the competition with just a little music of my own._

Texie, Ed and Ribs began holding auditions for new singers, carefully selecting traditionalists regardless of talent. The first to appear was Black Pearl Erad, who had previously worked as a dealer in the weapons division of the black market. She was a slender figure with a face that looked long, but it was her short black hair that earned Pearl her namesake, along with a black pearl necklace that she wore above a floor-length black gown made of silk.

The first song that Black Pearl had chosen was _Opportunity_ , which she had gotten off of the tip of her tongue from listening to a young Quvenzhane Wallis some twenty years back when she was no more than about nine years old. Texie glazed her eyes over the songbird that she had thought little of previously, while Ed and Ribs looked on from opposite ends of Big Boy's table. Ribs on the left, Ed on the right. None of them released a single audible breath until the song finished into silence.

"You sing well," Texie congratulated. "But a member of the Apparatus has more to do than just his or her own personal talent. It has to be used for the _modus operandi_ of this organization."

Black Pearl smiled, gave her head a gentle bow and made her reply.

"Coming from the moll of the great Big Boy Caprice, I will do whatever you ask."

"Do you have any interest in the opposite sex? Rather a woman with money and power, who is willing to have it all?"

Black Pearl's eyes compared hers with Texie's and given their similarity in appearance, could very much indeed imagine herself in that position; the pathway of becoming a mobstress with a golden set of pipes.

Then Texie asked.

"Have you ever seduced a man?"

"Several times."

"Care to show me how?"

Black Pearl, not being a lesbian so to speak, if not an open one, seemed nervous with the way she slid behind Texie as she had done almost tens of times before and began to run her back with her sharp nails before her neck leaned down to Texie's right shoulder and turned her head to the superior woman. The two women were almost close enough to kiss…

"That will be all. You're hired."

Black Pearl resumed her personal space by taking five steps backwards from Texie, trying to contain her enthusiasm. Then Texie's head turned to Ribs and commanded.

"Ribs, show Ms. Erad to the dressing room. I'm sure she will comfortable there."

Ribs took Black Pearl's left arm in a gentlemanly way and escorted her out of the dining hall. Ed, watching their departure, looked over to his aunt.

"She seems like a good singer," he contemplated. "And a good lookin' broad."

Texie's eyes darted to Ed and she met him with a scowl. It was apparent that she had not yet told him of what her plan-of-the-day was.

"I am looking for more than just another singer, Ed. I am looking for a weapon, a person whom Big Hero 6 won't suspect."

"But Tracy will?" he asked dumbfoundedly.

"Maybe," Texie's gaze went back to the stage. "But she can get close to her own sex whenever she likes, and if she knows anything about other criminal music artists like High Voltage…perhaps she can bring me that electric orb that they were so fond of using. According to Big Hero 6's words from the article, it seems to have some kind of a hypnotic effect on those who do not wear proper protection. I wish I could use it on the whole SFPD, they would be in my purse quicker before you can say 'all hail the queen.'"

Ed was intrigued by such power almost as much as his aunt was. But then another thought perturbed his mental imagery.

"You must have some idea as to where we can find High Voltage."

"You know I haven't, Ed. That is why Big Hero 6 is going to find them for us on the wiretaps. Then we will send Black Pearl to catch the orb and if she is lucky, we might make a quick progress on our retaking of this city."

Texie embellished the thought of victory at the very edge of her nails by drawing in a long swig of her cigarette and blowing the smoke across the dining room.

At the cafeteria the next day, Hiro, Go-Go, Goofy, Donald and Sora gave the bad news to Honey, Wasabi and Fred. Hiro explained the scene in vivid detail, including his hypothesis on the hypnotic effects of the orb. He even added that the reason they saw through their act, was because of their helmets and Hiro was thanking himself for that, but now he felt livid.

"How is it possible for them to create an electric ball that gets people to clap for them?"

"Pretty, simple," replied Go-Go looking away into the left. "Monetary resources and telling a story through dance. I call it telling a story by kicking our asses."

Wasabi smoothed his fingers against his forehead, trying to compose his mind. Whenever he did such a thing, Tadashi, Honey and Go-Go would try to help him through meditating, but he preferred the peace and quiet of his own space, like his laboratory when nobody was looking or when nobody was around.

"And there's gonna be a whole lotta ass-kicking for me. Why in God's holy name did I choose a yoga elective over martial arts? I wanna improve my fighting skills."

Honey explained, calmly and sensitively.

"1. You centered yourself. 2. You strengthened your core. 3. You love the big ball."

But then, Fred butted in.

"Colorful villains are underestimated because of their ridiculous personas like so many things. It was foretold in comic books."

Go-Go greeted Fred's dramatic smile of wickedness with a sarcastically catty remark.

"Yeah, we could just grab and study a whole shitload of comic books and figure out how to beat those bitches…or not."

But Fred took this seriously.

"I agree, but in this case, I prefer Superman Issue 188."

Go-Go frowned but Sora and his animal _ami_ were interested.

"What happened in that one?" Sora asked.

"Superman was apparently killed by an assassin who used Kryptonite radio waves, similar to how the mother-daughter duo used radio waves to hypnotize the crowd. He was replaced by an android, but he gets revived and he defeats the assassin by destroying all of his written crimes on Zarria."

"That doesn't sound very similar," Honey Lemon shook her head.

"Maybe, but you never know."

Hiro's tired eyes looked over to Karmi, sitting at a table just ten feet away from them. There was a stack of nine hardcover books on her left, while her right had a stack of fourteen, including three paperbacks on the top. She had a mauve colored MacBook in front of her as she appeared to be writing in a book, right-handed, pure and innocent in a way that Hiro wanted to see her as. And so, taking a strong breath, he walked over to the young lady, hoping to spark another sensible, yet civil conversation.

"Hi, Karmi! Hanging out in the cafeteria too?"

As though something worse was troubling her mind, Karmi looked up to Hiro and gave him an apathetic stare for a second before turning back to her diary, adding.

"Piss off."

"Oh come on, Karmi. Maybe Granville and Lane are right. Maybe the two youngest students should get…together."

But when Hiro tried to look at her again with the patience of a saint (his own brother for particular instance), he had noticed the contents of the diary. It was him, in a very serious expression, wearing his purple armored helmet, up to his shoulders in lavender larkspurs. He couldn't help but ask.

"Is that me?"

Karmi looked up at him again, this time with a teasing smile.

"Maybe it is, maybe it isn't."

Then she frowned.

"But personally, I prefer it to be somebody else."

She closed the laptop with her right hand and placed the diary on top of it, grabbed the stack of books from the right, then the left and with strong arms, she carried them all the way back to the lab.

Hiro didn't stick around long enough to wonder, he had to focus on dealing with the further escapades of High Voltage first. Anything was better than school to be honest. Had Tadashi not committed suicide by saving Professor Callaghan unprepared, he would have, without a doubt, helped him with girl troubles, since his own girlfriend, Honey Lemon, was an angel compared to Karmi, who like in the song was a devil in disguise.

At half past eight in the evening, Hiro and Baymax were geared up and flying through the night while Fred rested in Baymax's right arm. Sora, Donald and Goofy, flew on the glider on their right side.

"I do not understand why she would draw my superhero self. Speaking of which, Fred, you need to work on giving us codenames."

Fred pointed his sharp left index finger back and forth as he explained, in his own sense of logic.

"BH-1, that's you Hiro, is a superhero while your regular self is just another run-of-the-mill boy genius."

Baymax turned his head to Fred, while at the same time, sensing the surroundings in front of him.

"But there is only one Hiro."

"In this dimensional timeline, maybe," Fred imitated Baymax's exclamatory index finger.

Hiro began to wonder if there was an alternate reality, or dimensional timeline as Fred had said, where it was he who was the one who had been murdered while Tadashi lived. Before he could relish the thought, rapid beeps from his helmet told him that trouble was not too far away. He placed his left hand against his ear on that side. Go-Go's voice came from the receiving end of the communicator.

"It's High Voltage, again."

Gripping his hands onto Baymax's back for dear life, Hiro ordered.

"Let's go, Baymax!"

Baymax assumed a Stuka's nosedive and with Fred clinging onto the arm and Sora doing the same with his glider, they followed Go-Go's coordinates: Shimomoto Boulevard.

By the time they had gotten there, High Voltage had overturned an armored van with their own car and electrocuted the drivers to death before opening up the back of the van for its precious valuables. Juniper had zipped up her own bag and again, under the spell of the orb, the people who watched from the streets were forced into rooting for High Voltage. Blushing with all the bubbly excitement as she placed her hands on her heart, Juniper was overcome by the amount of love she had received….

"My dreams are coming true! You hear that Mama? They love me!"

…much so less than her mother. Barb had extracted no more than six bags out of the van before she marched up to Juniper and her right hand greeted her daughter's left cheek with a defining slap.

"Didn't I raise you better, Juniper? They love _us!_ _US!_ "

Juniper's feelings were beyond words, for she had hated the uncountable amount of times her mother hit her whenever she was rebellious. And none of her senses ever felt Go-Go putting her hands on her arms and turning the girl clockwise to face her until her eyes met hers.

"You got pretty lucky last time, bitches."

And she threw back her right fist to throw a hard jab at Juniper's chin. It was even painful than her mother's slap when she landed on her back to the pavement. She heard her mother's voice again.

"Juniper! Squat dance!"

Using the advantage of her lying on the street, Juniper stood on her hands and kicked her right foot up, then her left and went into sequence. Two blasts shot into Go-Go's foot disks and she fell chin first into the ground. Wasabi came to her aid and as he did, he faced the bandits with an appeasing grin.

"Probably not the best time right now, but…your dance moves are amazing!"

Barb was so flattered that she drew her right index finger over the bloodline of her right thigh.

"She does have my thighs."

And she slammed her right foot down, sending a less lethal version of the electricity she had used to kill the drivers. Wasabi's quick thinking caused him to doge the oncoming blasts and pretty soon, he was dancing to the beat of a Sikuti.

Karmi, who had been warned of High Voltage's hypnotic effects, had a pair of orange, puffy earplugs lodged so deep, that she could only hear a faint hint of the music emitting from the orb. She was curious to see Big Hero 6 in person ever since their business had been established just one year ago, longing to find out more about them, including their personal lives.

"Rubber insolates electricity!"

Came the voice of Honey Lemon as her right hand tossed a chem-ball at them. But it seemed as her aiming had not been completely perfected as Barb and Juniper somersaulted out of the way in opposing directions and the ball left a stain of blue goop on a nearby tree on the sidewalk. Juniper grabbed the orb in both hands and fired a blast at the girl, who was shot five stories into the air.

Screaming most of the way, her left hand had grabbed ahold of Fred's left and when Baymax was low enough, at about twelve feet, she dropped onto the street next to Go-Go on her left. Then he, Baymax, Sora, Hiro, Goofy and Donald landed on the ground, ready to take action.

Karmi's Samsung Galaxy was operating the camera app and she was aiming in on Hiro, whose visor was so orange, that nobody would even think of deducing that they were just one person. But given her vast intellect and her skills of deduction, Karmi seemed to know who it was…

Anyway, Barb and Juniper were bouncing their shoulders up and down to the beat of _Jump_. They clapped each other's hands, transforming it into a ball of energy and aimed it at Baymax's heart as the others scrambled out of the way. With the magnets turned off, Hiro fell on his back and watched Baymax soar into the air, repeating "Power, power, power, surge, surge" as he struggled to regain his sanity. His left rocket fist fired off due to processing the activation code via crosswire and it flew over Hiro's head into a black lamppost. Everyone else moved out of the way except for Karmi, who was filming the action. Hiro rushed forwards, leaving Fred to attend to the retreating High Voltage and his arms grouped around Karmi's waist, not recognizing who she was until it was too late. They slid fifteen feet away from the fallen lamppost with Hiro on top of her and Karmi on the sidewalk. He looked back at what could have been a bloody mess for her while he asked.

"Are you all right?"

His right hand retracted in surprise when he saw Karmi grinning girlishly at him.

"I am now."

Karmi's left hand held up the phone and the next thing Hiro saw a white flash that temporarily blinded him. By the time he got his eye sight back, Tracy was placing some of the fallen valuables back into the van and Karmi and High Voltage were gone.

At the cafeteria, the team sat with crossed arms on their chins, wondering and lamenting what to do about the overpowered supervillain duo.

"6 to 2," was all Go-Go could say.

"And they still kicked our asses," Sora added.

"I call it six to three," Honey interjected. "Since I'm counting the energy orb."

"Don't you mean, nine to three?" Donald quacked angrily as he tapped his webbed right foot. "We helped too, so we deserve the credit!"

"I'm surprised we see the connection," Fred wagged his right index finger back and forth. "Since Issue 188 of Superman also had a floating orb thing."

Hiro, standing behind Wasabi, felt even more guilty than his comrades.

"As if losing wasn't bad enough, Karmi got a good look at my face. She even took a picture of me."

Now, as it was instilled by Fred early on in the team's formation, it was a common force of habit, if not a rule of nature, for some superheroes to keep their identities a secret in order to deter their loved ones out of the line of danger among a myriad of other reasons and even though the team had revealed their identities (and their superhero name) in a letter to Tracy at the Tadashi Hamada Memorial Hall opening ceremony, half the city's populace did not believe for one second that the personal lives of their mysterious saviors, a group of college students and a puffy robot, were worth that reading about.

But Wasabi could care less about Hiro's troubles more so than his own.

"You can always tell her that you have a clone."

"Wasabi, she's a biotech, she can't be that retarded."

And he saw her, same as yesterday, at the same table going over her phone.

"I might as well get it over with."

He walked slowly towards her, prepared to face the music. He waved his right hand at her before she whipped around at the sound of his voice.

"Hey, Karmi!"

"Looks like I caught you."

She crossed her arms over Hiro's innocent smile.

"Karmi, can you keep a secret?"

"Like what? That you have a crush on me?"

"EWW! NO!"

Hiro did not know where such an idea had come from, but he cringed at the memory of Tadashi telling him that one day he would strike a relationship with a girl around his age.

"It's so obvious! You are always saying stuff like 'Hey, Karmi, we should work on our project.'"

And she said it with a deep, masculine voice, tapping on her phone with her left index finger while doing so before her right one pointed to Hiro's heart.

"N5-4 totally called it."

Hiro saw himself inside the phone wearing his armor and his right hand scooped it out of Karmi's grasp.

"No! What about this? Don't you think that this could be…me?"

He held the screen in front of Karmi, his face imitating the exact same fixture that he had gotten from that reactionary reflex of the flash bulb. But Karmi snatched it back, treating Hiro like he was some kind of thief.

"You are not that guy! That guy saved my life! He can say 'Hey, Karmi' to me at any time."

She resumed that masculine voice when she imitated Hiro and rubbed her right cheek against the screen, her eyes lovingly close to the young man that she saw in her dreams.

Hiro had become relieved by this news, but he did not realize that Karmi was lying. He just turned counterclockwise with a nervous smile.

"Okay then, see you later, Karmi."

Five minutes later, he went to the laboratory across the hall from Tadashi's. Honey came up to him with a worried look and her hands were coupled in a silent prayer.

"She knows?"

Her voice quivered, waiting for Hiro's reply.

"Well…"

Honey looked back over her right shoulder toward her chemistry set.

"No."

Then she turned back, her face flushing with the same amount of confusion as she was.

"No?"

"She didn't recognize me for some nutty reason and it gets worse. She is in love with BH-1."

Fred, who was sitting in his red beanie reading _The Death of Superman_ , had his own explanation to share.

"Sounds like a case of Lois Lane syndrome to me."

Go-Go standing next to him on his left, could only mutter the obvious.

"Is this another one of those comic book things?"

"Indeed! Quickly! Back to my house!"

It took Fred and Go-Go just twenty minutes to reach "The Fred Room" at Lee Mansion. Of course, it was another name for Fred's bedroom, as he thought it sounded cooler than just the status quo of calling a room as such. Fred himself went to the left side of the room and with both hands, walked backwards to pull out an 8 foot by 10 foot drawer of his Superman comics, dating all the way back to 1939. Go-Go stood behind him, waiting impatiently.

"Starting with the basics," he explained to some interest into Go-Go. "I have Mighty Ducks, Darkwing Duck, maybe throw in a little bit of The Incredibles."

"Skip the basics!" Go-Go demanded as the draw came to a stop. "I want to go to Superman Issue 188."

Fred immediately reversed, shouting.

"NO!"

And he closed it shut with his rear end.

"Fred, it is the only way we are going to defeat High Votlage. It's not like I am going to grease it's stupid pages or anything, I mean what the fuck is with you?"

"Dial down the language of yours!" Fred cried, trying be proper as his manservant. "We do not rummage through classic comics like barbarians, we must treat them delicately, like works of art."

He took a silver container from the top shelf into his right hand and kept it within 12 meters of Go-Go's face.

"Hand over the gum," he ordered.

Go-Go's right hand reached into her mouth for her pink bubblegum while Fred's left hand opened the top of the lid and grabbed a pair of pincers which were close to where the container was and grabbed the gum.

"Thank you," was his reply as it fell into the can. "Now the back up."

Go-Go always kept a backup piece of gum for obvious reasons and she repeated the same process with the other gum. Once the lid had been closed, Fred ordered "Hands up!" and covered both of their hands in white, quarantining gloves. And then Fred added rapidly (hoping that she wouldn't hear):

"IshouldprobablywanryouthatIdon'thaveSupermanIssue188."

"Could you say that again? A bit slower?"

Fred could tell that Go-Go sounded pissed at his reply. He placed his left index finger to his chin and spoke at normal speed.

"I only known what is in it's pages based on…whispered rumors."

Go-Go was curious. Perhaps these "whispered rumors" were scandalous.

"Could you start at the beginning?"

Fred's right hand grabbed a flashlight from the shelf where the toy robot figure of a Sentinel was shined it from the bottom of his face, creating a eerie atmosphere.

"June 1963. A disgruntled artist paints an obscene drawing of Superman giving the assassin a blowjob and it wasn't until after it was published that people caught the offending image. So they shredded the entire run except one copy, which was smuggled to freedom and few have ever seen it. To my eternal frustration, I am _NOT_ one of the lucky few."

"So where is it now?"

Fred turned counterclockwise to face Go-Go with fuming eyes.

"In the clutches of my arch-nemesis and Binky's little brother…Richardson Mole."

"How bad can he be?" Go-Go shrugged, almost sounding like her friend at that moment.

Fred treated Issue 188 like it was a prized racehorse, and he wasn't about lose his interest in it just yet.

"Very bad," was what he replied.

Richardson Mole, to Go-Go's confusion, was eleven years old and was short and stubby that people would often mistake him for a midget. He had Binky's ginger hair, a beauty mark under his left eye and wore a San Fransokyo Ninjas jacket above a cream-colored sweater, emerald trousers and black sneakers. His comic book shop, located on 326 Fell Street, was small but respectable and like Fred, he didn't have much interest in upper class mannerisms, just comics and pop culture in general. He was reading Flashpoint when the two arrived in his shop, with Tia Carrere's "I Never Even Told You" playing quietly on the subwoofers. Hearing the doorbell ring, he looked up from the pages and his eyes narrowed at the sight of Fred, accompanied by the attractive young lady. Also in the store was Junior Tracy, looking through some issues until he came upon one of the Green Lantern.

"Didn't know you were into comics," said Go-Go when he noticed him. "Traditionalists aren't really into modern stuff…or so I thought."

"This is 2033, not 1933, of course a traditionalist can use a few modern stuff every now and then."

As Junior resumed his business, Go-Go walked up to Richardson.

"Hey, kid, is you dad here? We need to talk to the owner."

Richardson placed the book down, smiling in a formal way.

"You're looking at him."

He pulled out a brown hair comb from his right pants pocket and slicked it back in a greaser's style. Then he stepped down and walked under the overhead door, placing his right hand on his hear effeminately and extending it out to Go-Go.

"I'm Richardson Mole. San Fransokyo's most eligible eleven-year-old bachelor."

Then like a true gentleman, he puckered his lips and they were just one inch away from the back of Go-Go's left hand when she retracted it.

"Leiko Tanaka," she said like the punk girl that she was. "And I'm WAY too old for you."

Richardson turned his back to her, unamused.

"Figured."

Fred stepped past Go-Go and spoke angrily.

"Okay, you little cunt! This is a business call, so let's keep it professional!"

"And your business is?"

"We need to see Superman Issue 188."

This came from Go-Go. Richardson scratched his chin with his right index finger and turned suspiciously to Fred.

"The very issue I sniped from you at the online auction?"

"Yes. That was a dick move of you to cut the power off of my computer like that."

Junior Tracy could not help but eavesdrop.

"How did you do it?"

"Simple, I just cut the power to Fred's house by just…flipping the switch. It was at least four months ago, so your father's charges against me were never proven."

Fred felt the urge to strangle Richardson to death and he almost did, had it not been for Go-Go using her back to bump him off guard.

"Can we just see the goddamn comic book?"

Richardson eyed Go-Go with a sparkling smile.

"I like you, angry dream girl. Follow me to the Mole Hole!"

Opposite to the left of a rotating comic rack, stood a red phone booth with an 80s AT&T pay phone. Richardson, being a Whovian, preferred something among the lines of the TARDIS, but a cheap phone booth that he had gotten from a traditionalist in jolly old England was a good bargain for his family. His right hand lifted the phone ever so slightly, and the floor went down, taking him with it. He could still be heard, saying, "I'm waiting!" as Junior, Go-Go, and Fred entered the small booth. It was uncomfortable with the way they squeezed together, but it lasted no more than three seconds before the floor gave out.

Go-Go landed perfectly in a rotating chair with it's back facing the colorful computer dashboard, a turquoise screen with two bright green-yellow lines drawing the bottom and the top. Her chair gave way to the left to allow Fred to fall to the floor with an almost broken nose. Junior ended up on his back. All three looked confused and amazed to see the impromptu arcade that was fittingly lit with orange and purple back lights.

There was a Stick o Fred arcade game to the left, while a basketball game with a single hoop and net was on the right. On the same side as the basketball game, were three other arcade games, one over by the end being named "Splatter Fred". Three perfect cardboard cutouts of Fred adorned the left wall, while a fiery looking arcade game with a skull and crossbones on the top with "Destroy Fred" in volatile red letters on the sides stuck out above the rest. It was as though Richardson's natural hatred of Fred had manifested itself into every pre-teen's whacked out fantasy. Richardson himself, was an expert on programming games after taking a decent number of online classes.

The sounds of Galaga with Fred shouting "OW!" after the destruction of each head pierced his ears and the screen of a cartoonish drawing of himself being eaten alive by a green amphibious creature with a belt of three skulls and purple leaves covering his modesty brought a wave of cringe into his soul. More sounds of "OW!" filled his ears with horror as three yellow paint balls struck the middle cardboard cutout of himself, their faces bearing pathetic fear. The Aniu was both horrified and livid.

"I told you he hates me."

Go-Go shook her head at Fred's comment and proceeded to ask Richardson.

"Where's the comic?"

"Beat my high score on any of these and I'll let you look at it."

In the center of the room, a was a Whack-a-Fred game with eight heads sticking out every two seconds, bearing Fred's face looking as though he had just pissed himself. Go-Go grabbed the purple rubber hammer in her left hand, holding it against his right. She was willing to get some of her nursed anger out of Fred through alternate means.

"What a poor choice," Richardson scoffed. "This is my favorite game and my high score is-"

Before he could specify, Go-Go slammed the hammer down on the first head she saw, then a second, then a third, then a forth, then a fifth, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty, twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three and twenty-four. Fred and Junior held their fears back as Go-Go based the heads and the score came up on the bottom ring:

"999.999.99"

"High Score!" came the voice of Fred on the machine.

Richardson smiled.

"I'm impressed."

Fred clasped his hands together in fear.

"I'm concerned."

Richardson took out a remote-control device from his right pocket. His right thumb pressed a round button on the bottom and the arcade machine in front of it, a dodging traffic game to be precise, went up, revealing a type of armored door that had a square window. Underneath it was small monitor with a grid on it's left hand side. In an instant reminder of the previous experience, Richard held out a pair of pincers in his right hand, ordering to Go-Go.

"Gum."

Her left hand took the gum out of her mouth and placed it into the pincers. He sniffed it lovingly.

"Strawberries, how sweet."

Fred's eyes looked through the window as Richardson's left hand made contact against the grid. It scanned the hand down and his profile appeared on the screen with the words "ID Confirmed" above a blue checkmark.

"Hello, me," said his voice from the voice box.

The door slid all the way down, and there, under the brilliant glow of a dazzling spotlight on a silver stand was Superman Issue 188. Fred, bathing in the pink light mixed with the purple ones, brought his hands to his right cheek and muttered with a slow gasp of amazement and wonder…

"It's so beautiful."

"Of course it is," Go-Go was impatient. "Now let's get it."

Fred's right hand gripped her left fist.

"Wait! Gloves."

And he produced the white gloves from his house.

Meanwhile at the lab, things seemed to go a bit smooth between Hiro and Karmi, who were being supervised by Baymax and Sora. A green screen displaying N5-4's cells came behind them and so did Karmi, who wearing a white suit with ocean blue gloves and was staring at said cell under a spotlight from the ceiling.

"N5-4, you have put on some weight. I see some junk in your nucleus."

As she looked into cell from her microscope, Hiro came up, asking.

"Should Sora and I be wearing bio-hazard suits too?"

Karmi, both sadistically and genuinely concerned, asked.

"Are your eyes bleeding?"

Sora, in a panic, covered his eyes in both hands, while Baymax held Hiro's head by his left thumb and index fingers.

"They are currently not."

"Thank goodness," Sora sighed in relief.

"Then you two do not need a biohazard suit….or not."

Hiro would have to wait and see if Karmi could gain his trust through something more…mutual. He asked.

"So you like dangerous organisms?"

Karmi rolled her eyes counterclockwise.

"Well, duh. By studying them we can figure out their computic uses for them. It's called science, something you and your brother should know."

And she walked off to the other side of the room. Hiro mustered a smile, asking.

"Very interesting, maybe when you are done, we can talk about my journal? The one that's due Friday?"

As he held out his phone, Karmi was tying N5-4's readout's into the computer, which looked old judging by its green screen.

"Do you think I care? Just be a good assistant and hand me N5-4."

"Sure."

He placed the phone on the table and just when it seemed like his right hand was about to reach for it, he noticed Wasabi's portrait on his phone as it started to vibrate. Now, Hiro had not realized the fatal potentiality of vibrating a virus to death until the phone's right side made contact with the dish. Before he could move it out of the way, he, Sora and Baymax locked back at the screen. N5-4's nucleus molecules were expanding, before exploding into nonexistence as the beeping of an alarm sounded the room. Then the lights went red and the screen displayed "Sample Not Detected" in a green bold font.

All Karmi could do was scream…

"YOU BASTARD! YOU KILLED N5-4!"

But Baymax delivered the positive outcome.

"This is a fortunate result. N5-4 would have soon reached a containment factor of 10."

And his screen displayed a skull and crossbones with a bar of eight green lines going up.

"He was more than just another parasite. He was the first one I ever nurtured….before my sister Marys…"

As Baymax considered other alternatives, Hiro stared at Karmi with a sad face of guilt, wondering over her word as she saw the tears leaking from her eyes. Could it be possible that she too had a lost a sibling to the angel of death? That was something that personal for the both of them, and it would have to wait, because Wasabi was calling him again. He picked up the phone in his right hand, his thumb pressed the green phone button and he waited for Wasabi's reply.

"Tracy's tracked High Voltage to San Fransokyo National Trust."

"Roger."

He looked up to his brother-figures.

"We'd better go."

Then he turned back to the weeping Karmi.

"Would it be all right if we left?"

He tried to show a polite tone, but Karmi seethed at Hiro through her tears. She was determined to be alone, away from him, the spiky haired foreigner and his godforsaken robot once and for all.

"YOU THINK I WANT YOU TO STAY, YOU FUCKING MURDERER?! GO! FOR CHRIST'S SAKE, GO!"

And so they did.

But nobody seemed to know that Spaldoni had eavesdropped on Wasabi's phone call through the wiretaps, he immediately informed Texie via headset with the location: San Fransokyo National Trust.

"San Fransokyo National Trust, girl. You know what to do."

She said this while sitting in front of Big Boy's table at the dining hall of Club Ritz. Black Pearl, who had been wearing a black floppy hat, a sleeveless cocktail dress that went down to her knees and black high heel slippers, nodded in agreement. With a likeminded smile, she picked up a twelve-by-twenty-four sized black handbag and was on her way out the door to flag down a taxicab.

Back at the top floor of the store, after Junior decided to take the next bus home, Fred and Go-Go were browsing through the pages of Issue 188, which was lit under a desk lamp on the stand. The still, empty loneliness didn't bother Richarson at all as he was standing on top of a ladder, dusting the menagerie with a feather duster in his right hand. His concentration was broken by Fred's shout upon seeing the blowjob. He couldn't help but sneer at the way he used his arms to shield his eyes.

"Good luck trying to 'unsee' that…that is, _if_ you don't want to get your cock blown."

But Go-Go had been used to blowjobs by watching them from a certain distance of twelve feet. Her left elbow slammed into his right and she demanded…

"Oh grow up and read faster."

"A wise man, not Tadashi or my father, once said that you have to find a solution that you can't rush."

Go-Go's right hand pulled on his left ear, almost twisting it.

"All right! All right!" he shouted. "I'll read faster."

He flipped the pages, engrossing the details as he peered into the deepest reaches of the illustrations.

"This seems to shed some light on the subject."

Go-Go's iPhone rung from her pocket. She picked it up in her left hand, saw Wasabi's portrait and her thumb pressed down on the call button. He could hear the frantic nature of his voice.

"HIGH VOLTAGE! SAN FRANSOKYO NATIONAL TRUST! NOW!"

Without a reply, Go-Go's right thumb pressed the red end call button and the next voice of drama that she heard was Fred's.

"Yes! I think I've found the answer."

"Well, speak of the devil," Go-Go darted her eyes left and right twice. "Great, time to roll."

And she dragged Fred out of the store with her right hand grabbing his red sleeve.

"Come again, Leiko!" Richardson waved to the departing woman in a sweet voice.

As they were out of his view, Richardson's thoughts turned to Go-Go. He could almost imagine himself grouping her as he dusted the books, pretending they were her breasts. Despite the May-December outlook on the both of them, he was definitely going to arrange a wedding for the both of them…a wedding that would most likely take formation in the distant future.

The main hall of the San Fransokyo National Trust had a gold and silver vault door that was about eighteen feet high. It was surrounded by the floors and ceilings and six pillars of Nero Marquita marble with a grand chandelier of one hundred and eleven Swarovski crystals. The bank was built in 1908 and had been under the employ of Wells Fargo since the twenties before the Emperor Hirohito reshaped the city in his image. For the case of High Voltage, they combined their electrical powers together to be aimed at the gold wheel of eight pikes holding it together. The generator of an orb floated above them from the top of the joints, looking as though it had been perched there. If nothing else, their actions had disabled the alarm and sent the other employees of the bank running to Tracy for help.

"Big finish, Juniper!" shouted Barb over the crackling electricity.

Obeying, she shot herself forwards, somersaulted, and used her hands to push her legs toward the middle of the door lock, slamming against it as she crouched and fell back to the ground. The door disappeared in a neon blue cloud of smoke and came out of it in a ruined piece of wreckage that had slightly crooked it. Then it fell inside, revealing all the many valuables just waiting to be snatched into their hands.

"Now let's get that cash!"

A deep sinister voice broke into the fizzling sounds of the orb. "Barbara and Juniper Nixon, you have a debt to pay…in legal tender that should rightfully belong to you."

Juniper and Barb looked around in opposing directions, throwing mad glances at the ceiling, the vault and themselves.

"Show yourself!" Barb bellowed.

The voice intoned: "The weed of crime bears bitter fruit, High Voltage. Crime does not pay."

"Crime always pays!" Juniper replied. "At least that's what Mama thinks. She also thinks we're too good to be regular singers. We're already stars."

"Stardom comes with a price. A price that easily destroy you if continue down this path."

Barb worked her jaw.

"Do you know you are talking too? We're famous, talented and above all the other crappy singers in this world."

"Your sense of nostalgia blinds you, Barbara. But I want you alive long enough to see the errors of your ways."

The baleful voice echoed around the halls, even frightening Black Pearl, who had entered through the front entrance and stopped behind a pillar where a side exit of two black glass doors went out into the street. She prayed silently, hoping that the voice would not see or notice her. Barb tried to gain the upper hand, verbally.

"The only errors I see are the talent agents who mocked and scorned us like motherfucking fools. They didn't even think we were too good for MTV."

"Perhaps they had a good reason, too. But did you think that they would let you get away with it?"

Barb and Juniper seemed to know the answer. They turned in clockwise directions to see Honey Lemon and Wasabi, dressed in armor, blocking their way of the door to freedom.

"That creepy voice is right," Wasabi plucked up courage. "Ya'll don't need to steal, you guys have real talent."

"I agree," chippered Honey Lemon. "You guys should audition for _Top Feet_."

Barb shook her head no.

"And risk rejection again? If you hadn't known before, bitch, I am a star! And stars do _NOT_ audition!"

With that, she opened her arms for a large array of electrical sparks. Honey pushed Wasabi out of the way at the bolt intended for him broke into the overhead LED lights, held from a peach colored ceiling.

As the fight began to shape, Hiro, Baymax, and foreigners three, decked out in their armor, raced to the rescue.

"What can I learn from Karmi?" Hiro asked Sora out of the blue. "She talks to viruses and I have way better adjustment to handling loss than her."

"I did hear that she has a sister coming from her mouth," Sora said as he kept the glider in balance. "But I can agree with you that both you and her have one thing in common: deceased siblings."

"True," said Baymax, calmly over the roar of his engines. "Hiro has a strong social network for support and without any close family members in the present, Karmi does not."

Hiro began to wonder why Professor Granville and Miss Lane gave him such a sufferable task, but before he could ask either of them, the explosion caused by the electric bolt reverberated through the air. His destiny of handling crime was now his prime directive.

"Let's talk about this later."

"I will set a reminder," Baymax informed his master.

When Barb and Juniper turned back to form an electrical shield behind their rears, who should they see in front of them, but the Shadow holding two Colts: a .38 and a .45—one for each of them. Fearing for their lives, they jumped out of the way and struck electrical whips at Honey and Wasabi and Juniper's whip nearly crushed Black Pearl when it came in contact with the middle pillar on the right. With a banshee's scream, Wasabi used the plasma blades to shield himself, hoping that they would save his life once the rubble cut through him, and miraculously, it did.

Baymax, Sora, Hiro, Goofy and Donald rushed through the door and stopped before the dangerous females. Hiro lifted his left index finger into the air with a warning.

"Time to power down, _subeta._ "

Juniper seemed offended.

"Step off, dickwad! We're the real headliners, it's Juniper's time to shine!"

Barb skidded over and commanded.

"Launch! Two, five, seven, eight!"

The Shadow, perched from the top of the vault door, had the two women exactly where he wanted them. He fired twice, first from the left, then the right and back again. Juniper managed to dodge the bullets by sprinting forwards like a rocket, right into the grip of Baymax's left hand. But before she could the same weakness she had inflicted on the robot, Goofy swung his shield at her head, flooring her at the very moment Baymax released his grasp. She managed to leap her way back to her mother to deal with the Shadow.

That was when Go-Go and Fred joined the fight, she was carrying the Kaiju costumed mascot above her head and she launched him into the air by five feet, instructing her teammates.

"Fred knows how to beat these bitches!"

Fred's top eye opened up, and for the second time he spoke in a rapid voice that he hoped Go-Go would not hear.

"ActuallyIdon't."

But this time, Go-Go understood his every word above the Shadow's gun's firing at High Voltage.

"You mean we tracked that damned comic book for nothing?! I thought you said you had the answer!"

Fred replied, a bit slower.

"Yeah! To explain Hiro's secret identity problem. Was I not clear?"

And wasn't clear about the bolt of electricity from Barb, which had been blocked by Donald using the Reflega spell. He continued to explain his state of affairs.

"To be honest, Go-Go, Issue 188 was a letdown. Maybe Richardson did me a favor for cutting off the power."

Then it hit him, Fred's frown turned into a smile, then it transgressed into a beam. Go-Go stared at him with raised eyebrows before he shouted.

"Oh my God, why didn't I think of this before?! We need to cut off the power!"

They rushed over to Honey Lemon, who was busy reloading behind a fallen desk from initial attack.

"Honey!" she said. "We need to used one of your balls to conceal the orb."

Mentally agreeing, Honey shot out three balls of each color, red, purple and yellow and plastered them onto the front of Go-Go's hand disks for protection. Then, she gave two balls of red into Go-Go's hands and she somersaulted toward High Voltage, who were being denied entry by the firing bullets of the Shadow. Black Pearl stayed behind the pillar closest to the vault door, knowing for certain that the two women would be defeated there and she would take the orb for herself.

Go-Go screeched the floor as she approached Juniper, who swung her right hand back and asserted herself, twirling upside down on the floor. The energy blasts deflected against the blue coated disks, and Go-Go jumped off the foot disks with a determined glare. She crossed her arms, waiting to see the moment of these insufferable bitches being enclosed by the grip of justice…and she swung the disks forward. The right disk struck Juniper's chin, with her right elbow being scraped by the Shadow's .45 bullet. It was followed by the left one, which hit Barb's right cheek.

At last, both of her hands gripped the orb, covering it in a turquoise gelatin. She held it up in her right hand, taunting the ladies as she dropped it to the floor. Before either of them could get it back to reenergize their powers, Sora swung the Keyblade at the encased orb like a golf-ball and it rolled towards the edge of the grand hall…right into Black Pearl's handbag.

"Thank you, spiky haired kid!"

She closed the handbag and made her way out the side door.

Now powerless, Barb and Juniper exchanged mugs of fear and anger at Go-Go. Lifting her left arm up and her right hand holding her daughter's left, Barb cried.

"Escape dance, Juniper! Two, five, seven, eight!"

She twirled her left hand once, signaling their escape. But Honey, armed with a yellow ball in her right hand, but not about to let them go scot-free. Karma had to be inflicted upon them.

" _¡No tan rapido!_ "

With shut eyes, she swung the ball forwards at the mother and daughter making their way to the front door. Once it had made contact with the floor, Barb found herself covered from the shoulders up in a dark turquoise goo. She felt horrified.

"Juniper! You wouldn't abandon your own mother, would you?"

But Juniper, blinded by her own hubris, saw this as an opportunity to escape her mother's shadow, away from her dominating demeanor and her abusive control.

"Sorry, Mama, but after the way you've treated me, I'm going solo."

She somersaulted to the door, leaving her mother in anguish.

"How dare you defy me!"

Fortunately, on Juniper's part, she didn't get very far when the Shadow's .38 bullet drilled into her right knee, bringing her down to the floor and small rivulets of blood began to leak. Baymax went over to the injured young lady.

"I will treat your injuries now."

Barb was absolutely livid.

"You deserved to be shot Juniper, better yet grounded!"

Wasabi's right hand dragged her gelatin cocoon closer to Barb, preparing for Tracy and the Crimestoppers to haul them away.

"Have I missed out on any insignificance?" Baymax asked.

"Not really," his creator told him. "Just some quick thinking from Go-Go."

"Big ups to Fred for the inspiration," Go-Go commented from Wasabi's position. "Even if it was completely unintentional."

Fred's right hand opened up the top eye, placing his fists to his hips like a true superhero.

"Well, that's what I do!"

Hiro turned to face him.

"Anything on my secret identity problem?"

"Based on what I've gathered through theories and the issue itself, I am pretty certain that Karmi has Lois Lane syndrome. Superman's alter ego is Clark Kent of the _Daily Planet,_ and his even though his disguise is _so_ thin, she can't make the connection. This has been backed up by Super-Hypnosis and the ability to vibrate the molecules of his face. Two of his lesser-known super powers."

"But I don't have super-powers, I'm a mere mortal."

Fred took Hiro's words into consideration.

"Then I guess there is something wrong with her."

Hiro began to wonder about his journal for Granville until the police arrived to take High Voltage away. The Shadow disappeared, having other matters to attend to.

Black Pearl returned via taxicab to the Club Ritz's conference on the third floor where Texie, Ribs, Willie the Fifth and Flyface. They were sitting at the table to a four-course dinner of steak, roast beef, chicken and steamed chard. She came with the heavy purse in her right hand, and Texie turned over her right shoulder to see the delivery. The gangstress stood up, stopping two feet before the other lady in black.

"Did you get it?"

Black Pearl nodded.

"Let me see."

She opened up the bag and lifted into Texie's hands the orb encased within the goo. Her male companions were confused, but Texie studied it like a priceless gem.

"That's it?" asked Flyface as he swatted one of the flies over his left hand.

"It is," Texie breathed. "Perhaps if I could find something to heat it with, maybe the goo will melt off."

Ed had his doubts.

"And what if you can't get it out, Aunt Texie?"

Texie smiled devilishly. A palm was formulating inside her head.

"Not to worry, my dear nephew, I always have a Plan B."

And she carefully placed the orb into the safe.

Next morning in Professor Granville's office, Hiro explained third party views of what people saw him as in general, holding the phone containing the journal in his right hand.

"People see what they want to see. Take Lash Looper."

Professor Granville, whose chin had been resting on her combined fingers, was confused.

"Who," she asked. "Is Lash Looper?"

"Somebody I made up to look up as an idol, but that's not important right now. When people look at me, what do they see? A robotics major, a teen genius and possibly just a guy trying to fit in. Because that's what Karmi saw in me and I want to thank her for it."

Karmi, who had been standing there the moment they stepped into the office, was stunned and stargazed, expecting Hiro to expunge negative words about her from his mouth.

"Endofjournal."

With those last three words having been spoken rapidly, Hiro placed the phone back into his right jacket pocket, letting Professor Granville and Miss Lane gather their thoughts.

"What do you think, Karmi?" asked Professor Granville.

Karmi was so astounded and lost in thought that she tried to find the words before finally admitting.

"I don't know what to say."

Hiro bumped his right elbow against her left, encouraging her.

"Because you are modest that way. Professors, Karmi was great this week. I have learned so much from her."

Professor Granville and Miss Lane took these words as modest compliments. And all she had to say was.

"I am happy to hear it, dismissed."

She turned clockwise in her desk chair, her back turned to the two kids. Karmi was the first to leave while Hiro stayed, watching the two ladies gather their files from the grey cabinet. He was quite curious to know a few extra tidbits.

"So…none of this was really about me, was it?"

Professor Granville's eagle eyes turned back once at Hiro for a split second and the rest of their time together was concentrated on gathering the files that would close their case on Karmi.

"We are through here, Mr. Hamada," she sang.

Hiro turned clockwise to leave by as he approached the door, he turned counterclockwise again and spoke.

"It was really about Karmi, wasn't it?"

It was Miss Lane's turn to speak.

"Maybe, maybe not. But you heard the boss, we're through here."

So Hiro turned clockwise again and when he had left the room entirely, Granville smiled and her eyes were at half-mast. She felt proud and sagacious.

"I still don't like her," Miss Lane said to her superior.

"You underestimate the both of them, Miss Lane. Perhaps someday they'll start dating. And speaking of dating, how about we meet up with Mr. Allard after work?"

As both women nodded in agreement, Sora and Baymax, who were waiting for Hiro and Karmi, watched the boy and the girl confront each other civilly.

"You know," Karmi said, her voice feeling lost. "I thought you were going to sell me out…but you didn't, thank you."

Then she crossed her arms, striking a sarcastic smile.

"You got it bad for me, don't ya, big guy?"

"I do not have it!" Hiro gritted under his teeth.

He spoke clearly this time with: "It's just that Granville's right, we have a lot in common, like siblings to look up to for example."

"And the teen genius thing," agreed Sora.

Two figures, a blue boy and pink girl in pigtails appeared on Baymax's screen.

"The rise of hormones coursing through your pubescent body. Pimples will start to appear on your face and back."

Hiro shoved the robot away on his right side.

"Thanks for making it awkward, Baymax," he reprimanded.

He turned back to Karmi while Sora followed Baymax out of the hall in understanding.

"All I can say is, can we be friends?"

But all his mouth felt was the palm of Karmi's left hand while her right one picked up the iPhone from her right skirt pocket.

"Shh, Big Hero 6 news update!"

The image of the team surrounded the down High Voltage was accompanied by Bluff Dunder.

"High Voltage's rhythmic reign of terror ended with a reign of error when the mother-daughter duo ran into Big Hero 6."

Her eyes fell on the frozen image of Hiro delivering a silent war cry as she sighed lovingly on her savior.

"Oh, I wish you were here."

Hiro, in a rare moment of romance, whispered in a voice that was too low for Karmi to hear.

"But I am here."

* * *

From his damp and greenly lit lair, Obake was watching the new reports of last night's failed bank attempt on his enormous 60-inch screen. The images of the team in action and Barb and Juniper's mugshots were displayed on a small monitor to the left of Dunder.

"Big Hero 6 shocked High Voltage, but has isolated them on Alcatraz's maximum security prison."

His eyes peered with interest on the six heroes that were about to stand in his way, causing a pink-purple glow to emit from the left side of his face. Behind him, the voice of Sister Esclarmonde echoed from her chambers.

"It seems we have to purge their spirits first."

The purple glow faded after three seconds, hinting that their agreement was mutual.


	5. Food Fight

The bright blue Caddy pulled into the Union Iron Works Machine Shop, where the Apparatus and Lord Deathstrike had conspired just last year to replicate Hiro's microbots and where they had been discovered by the microbots' true owner and his entourage. Its sole passenger in the backseat, Spaldoni, stepped out of the left-hand side door to be met by three other cars of red, green and yellow, all of which were parked before the Caddy by sixteen feet. Mucelli, who had been acting as the chauffer, waited until Spaldoni passed the driver's door before he could get out and followed him. Riding shotgun was Habeas, who came out three seconds later.

The three lawyers were now standing before the partially reassembled Apparatus, comprised of those who had gotten out of prison through a myriad of means, such as escaping and being let out for good behavior. Texie, Ed and Ribbs stood in front of the main body of the group while others flanked them in differing directions: Flattop Jones, Itchy, Crewy Lou, Mumbles, Measles, Mole, Flyface, Willie the Fifth, Pruneface, Little-Face, Rhodent, Influence, the Brow, Shoulders, Stooge Viller, Mousey Rattner, Autumn Hews, Nifty Wreath, 2 Fingers, Sugar, Duke, Lips Manlis and Boris and Zora Arson.

The thirty criminals remained taciturn and vigilant as Spaldoni prepared himself for a lofty speech. The sunlight surrounding the dilapidated windows created a glowing aura around his head, a king speaking to his subjects in the warmth of holy light. This provided the illusion that in the criminals' eyes, Spaldoni was a saint.

"I know you're upset over the events of last year, but I believe that the only way we can avoid any chance of bad blood and war amongst the modernist supercriminals is…"

He paused, giving himself a chance to draw his breath.

"…to have Big Hero 6 get rid of the competition for us."

The news was met with a mixed reply of shock and anger from the other criminals, expressing their outrage and surprise amongst their fellow men.

"Big Hero 6?! Are you shitting me?!" came the voice of Flattop Jones from the grouping.

"That would be like hiring Tracy to do _our_ dirty work!" Crewy Lou complained.

"I call it a hidden business decision," Spaldoni reassured his fellow criminals. "If anyone has the information necessary to the current whereabouts of these criminals and their MO, we inform Big Hero 6 and take ahold of that criminal's assets before the police get to it first, whether it be territory or arsenal. If not vice versa in which they will be leading us to them. We can either take the assets legally or launch a _coup d'etat_. Personally, I'd go with the former unless you want to end up behind bars again."

Boris Arson, a Slavic man of black hair, a triangular beard and a matching black trench coat covering his suit, stepped away from his sister to Spaldoni, trying to make his intentions clear.

"If you think that we are going to put our faith into the city's saviors, I think we should work side-by-side with them, to create an illusion that we have reformed. If we convince them—"

"That we are going to take back this city piece by piece?" Spaldoni interrupted. "That would make them too suspicious. We need to do it discreetly with enough information about these criminals to prove that they can trust us. Those kids along with their robot, the spiky-haired guy, the talking duck and the alien looking dog will believe what I want them to believe. There will be no grand announcement to the underground until _after_ every inch of San Fransokyo belongs to us."

Boris shook his head in disbelief, expressing his opinion on the matter by forming an "okay" sign with his right hand.

"In Mother Russia, we say, 'a fool may bite the czar, but he has teeth'."

"Can the folklore, Boris," interrupted Texie. "We're not in your damned country anymore; we are here in San Fransokyo, where we have plumbing, electricity, high-quality entertainment and Spaldoni as the boss."

And she emphasized the first three conveniences by lifting three fingers from her own left hand. Spaldoni turned his attention to Texie before she spoke again.

"He's playing Big Hero 6 like a _bunraku_ from Hell and he's operating behind the scenes to make sure we get what we want."

"I understand perfectly," said Boris. "But there is no need to get all worked up after speaking my mind. And I can assure that we have all modern conveniences, but not as modern as this city. The only difference in our traditionalist ways are that women come in second, depending on their talents."

Texie took five steps closer to Boris, a nasty grin that was plastered to her lips spelled a devious reply.

"Then I bet your sister and your mother were lousy cooks."

Zora took Texie's sneer with a hard string tugging on her hardened heart. This was getting too much for her and her eyes flashed with anger. Any insult that was inflicted upon their family was a great detriment, as they were well known back in the old country for making the best explosives, explosives that provided the siblings with a means of escape.

Before anyone else could engage in a bloodbath of malign, Spaldoni raised his voice.

"That will be all, Texie."

Knowing her place, Texie's smile weakened and she walked back to the group.

"My apologies, Spaldoni. I wasn't thinking clearly."

When she was back in place, the chess piece on the mental board that was being shaped in Spaldoni's mind, he spoke again.

"If Callaghan used us as pawns for his scheme, we are going to do the same to Big Hero 6 and in order to do that, we need each other. The same way…a family needs each other. But that will all be saved for the victor. Right now, I want one of you take care of another rival from the underground. Perhaps we can arrange Big Hero 6 to attend the annual cooking competition in Ross Alley."

Before anyone else could raise their hands like schoolchildren in an elementary class, Duke stuttered before speaking out, raising his right hand as far as he could go.

"Sugar and I will do it. Cooking and…anything related to that is one of our specialties."

Spaldoni, smelling the scent of victory before it would even be accomplished, smiled in great satisfaction.

"Good, do you know the names of who's running the joint?"

As Spaldoni rubbed his hands in anticipation for an answer, Duke drew a quick breath and searched his memory.

"Yama, I think. Tracy let him out after a week in the local prison. Heard he even begged to have him locked up after seeing some shadow creature wearing a red sash on his face to scare the living shit out of him. As for the location, he may be holding it in his usual stomping grounds."

Spaldoni's smile grew by an inch.

"That's it then."

He looked up to his mates, uttering no more than a single word.

"Dismissed."

* * *

The woman known as Momakasei had come from the British Concession of Shanghai's international settlement. She often wore indigo, to match the tragic figure of her dark blue steaks that ran alongside her raven hair, emerald eyes that were meant to contrast with everything else and her body was as slender as any other female chef could be looked upon as. She had gone through various cooking schools, but her teachers saw some of her skills as dangerous and unorthodox, telling her that meals had to be made using time and patience. But Momakasei was a fast-paced woman who thought of opening a restaurant where she would cook her meals within three seconds flat, so she developed graphene bladed knives at the San Fransokyo Institute of Technology after moving to said city and even the judges on one showcase seven years ago found the knives to be dangerous if they were to fall into the wrong hands. Fortunately, she developed a reputation for being one of the best sushi chefs in the city, working from place to place, even on private yachts and parties for the upper class.

Right now, she was in the office of the clone of Alistair Krei, chopping a piece of pink salmon into eight pieces. This was followed by diving the knife in her right hand under two of the middle pieces and flying onto two white rolls lying atop a large green leaf with three tuna rolls on each side. After adding the brown colored caviar on top of the salmon, her concentrated eyes watched her hands add the wasabi and the ginger. With the meal finished, she brought the wooden tray in both hands to Krei, who was admiring himself in the reflection of his own cell phone. He could see Momakasei in it as well.

"My people tell me that you are the best sushi chef in this city."

Momakasei's reply was cold and thin with the implication that Krei was taunting her.

"Your people underestimate me and my talents. I am and always will be the best."

As he poured the soy sauce into his bowl, Krei added.

"I will be the judge of that, miss."

Then, he poured the sauce onto the rolls as Momakasei peered her eyes, hinting an ulterior motive taking shape as it was predicted in her mind. Her eyebrows narrowed at the sight of Krei's right hand dipping the roll twice in the sauce bowl.

"You do not dip the finest odor in soy sauce!"

Krei just spoke to her like a regular jackass just before he tossed the roll into his mouth.

"How you shut up and don't tell me how to eat."

Momakase's eyes flared with flames in her irises.

"You will regret those words…for I hate to see you robbed of an exquisite experience."

Krei swallowed the roll hard, sensing the approach of danger. Momakase placed the tray and bowl back into the wooden tray and took out in both hands a curve dish with a piece of koi on the left side the right featured wasabi dip and a slice of lemon.

"Let me guess: the fish that is poisonous and is not prepared properly?"

Momakase's eyes widened.

"Do not! Doubt my skills. And do not worry about the fish."

With a pair of chopsticks in his right hand, and his suspicions growing weak, the naïve businessman placed the koi on his tongue and chuckled at how enjoyable it was.

"Delicious. What's your secret recipe?"

Momakase didn't answer…and neither did her twin which phased in and out of her sister's body. She just smiled at him, wickedly.

"What did you put in my…?"

The clone's speech began to slur before his chest could function back to normal, but it failed and dropped his head and left arm on the white desk.

"A special toxin I made myself."

Holding a kitchen knife with a black band holding a blade that was bright blue, Krei's sense of danger was growing fierce with the toxin creeping into his bloodstream. His left fingers reached for the cell phone, dropping before the edge. He had to contact Big Hero 6.

Krei was successful at having his thumb press the call button down, but the screen shattered into blackness when Momakase threw the knife and it flew into the wall on the left side of the window, pinned.

"Relax," she purred, going behind him seductively. "You'll survive. I've only killed a few men in my entire life, but none are as wealthy as you."

With his chin now resting on the desk, Krei watched the chef remove the knife from the wall, causing the phone to drop to the floor.

"But you will only become my latest victim, if I can give you the antidote. Do you want it?"

Krei mumbled a "yes" as his stomach began to burn.

"All I want is the prototype that is in your secret vault," smiled Momakase as she unrolled a Tojiro case containing five other knives of the same color.

She narrowed her eyes, revealing a sinister and inhuman undertone.

"You work for _me_ now, _kisama._ "

Aunt Cass was enjoying her new coffee machine. It was more competent compared to the old one and she busily working two cups at a time, followed by three as she drew her own little cappuccino drawings of a lotus flower, a heart with a small squiggle in the middle and an apple with the same curlicue. She handed the cups down to three men in their late twenties: a black man and a pair of Caucasians with raven hair.

"You boys enjoy," she told them.

This managed to turn their frowns upside down after several nights of being rejected by a troupe of smart females.

Half-a-minute later, Cass handed a cup with the drawing of a panda's head to Mrs. Trueheart, who looking forward to becoming a true grandmother.

"This cappuccino is just too adorable!" she cried.

"Why thank you," smiled Aunt Cass before her eyes frowned on a brown-skinned lady with pink hair passing by the door window. "Unlike some of my other customers, I have a toleration for those who consider my art to be cute."

B.O. Plenty and his wife Gravel Gertie, sitting at a round table behind Mrs. Trueheart, looked up to Aunt Cass and B.O. shouted.

"Y'all! Miss Cass! Can we git another berry smoothie over 'ere? One without these gross bobs?"

"That's the boba."

Cass rolled her eyes at their eccentricity as the two bumpkins realized that she stood corrected. In all her time that she had run the Lucky Cat, she expected the negative reception from her customers. Tomeo had always told her that since the day she opened it up and she repeated those words on the day after he died. At the same time, Cass felt stressed over her job and wanted more than her share of fame as the aunt of the young man who built a healthcare robot and got burned alive with a bullet to the forehead in a conflagration of a mad scientist's work on a showcase hall.

Her eyes then concentrated on a flaxen haired man wearing a grey-brown turtleneck shirt and was reading the front page of the _Daily San Fransokyo Tribune_. Cass seemed to be familiar with this person, and he was not one of her old beaus. This was a celebrity. Her mind confirmed this when he lowered the newspaper to take a swig of the white cup of hot chocolate that was about to obtain into his left hand. She placed her right hand on her heart, planning on doing it for a second or two in the hopes that he would not notice.

Then, her ears heard the sound of the door opening. An exhausted Hiro, carrying his army green backpack on his right arm, walked up to his aunt and smiled.

" _Konichiwa, obasan._ "

Ignoring Hiro's Japanese, Cass held her youngest nephew by the shoulders and directed him to the young man, stage whispering.

"Hiro, do you know, who that is?"

Hiro wasn't quite up to date on celebrities other than his and Tadashi's personal favorites, including music artists from the likes of Breathless Mahoney.

"A critic? He looks like one with the way he's holding his newspaper."

"It's Bolton Gramercy! Top celebrity chef!"

Bolton Gramercy was born in Johnstone in the United Kingdom. Alongside his talents as a chef, he was a restaurateur and a television personality who rose to fame after graduating North Oxfordshire Technical college, moving to San Fransokyo to be away from his alcoholic father and his former interest as a football player with a gammy knee. By the time he was 33, he opened up his own restaurant in Chelsea, aptly named Restaurant Bolton Gramercy. This was just the start of a culinary empire that rose with his very first television series _Hell's Kitchen._ But at the same time, he was often a real pain in the ass toward his audience and his employees, somewhat inheriting his father's temper, but Aunt Cass didn't care about anything other than his fame.

"That's cool," Hiro muttered rapidly.

Then he felt his iPhone vibrating from his pullover pocket. His right hand held it out and saw a text message from Go-Go reading "Trouble Krei Tech!" He knew what to do.

"I'd better get some rest!" he explained in a rapid speech. "Don't wanna spend the whole night up and about."

And he shot up the stairs, leaving Cass alone with the chef of her dreams. With a green plate of bread in her right hand and a glass container of brown coffee in her left, she stuttered with delight, acting like a pauper before a prince.

"Excuse me, Mr. Gramercy, I just wanted to say that I am a huge fan of your work!"

Bolton placed the newspaper down, squinting at her as he spoke in his Renfrewshire accent.

"Charmed, I'm sure, but I don't do autographs."

"I wasn't asking for your autograph," Cass tried to reason. "I was just making sure that you were enjoying your meal."

Mr. Gramercy groaned with boredom.

"So you're one of those faggots, aren't you? Look, dear, sometimes I must choke down pedestrians as simple body fuel, preferably so I can buy peace and quiet."

Aunt Cass did not know what to say other than reciprocate to one of her male part time employer's reply of: "Miss Hamada! You're out of soy milk!"

She went to fetch some from the storage, her mind still pondering on Mr. Gramercy's words.

Sora, Donald, Detective Tracy, the Crimestoppers and Goofy had already met up with the team, but Hiro and Baymax seemed to lag behind. Hiro had crawled his way down the drainpipe once he reached the second floor of the Lucky Cat and made his way to the garage, summoning Baymax from his luggage and the both of them were dressed in their armor, bringing a pocketable amount of 100 microbots with them. By the time they were flying over the Financial District, Go-Go's voice called to Hiro via radio. She sounded impatient and digressed.

"Hiro, where the hell are you?"

"On our way," the boy genius replied rapidly. "What's going on?"

"Krei ate some bad sushi. I think he's about to barf."

Once they had entered through the front door, taking the elevator to Krei's office, Baymax examined the sedated businessman. Fred, the top part of his costume opened up, supplied Krei with a glass of crystal clear water, setting it down by his left hand. His excited face could not believe the fact that Krei had almost been assassinated like his original host.

"You will be all right. But while the antidote takes effect, your major motor systems will be significantly impaired."

Krei's eyes darted to Fred, who picked up his left arm and dropped it down to study the doll-like physics of it's current state and turned them up to Baymax.

"No shit, Sherlock," he intoned.

Baymax continued with his advice.

"Try to relax while I rub your back."

And his fingers twiddled soothingly against the shoulder blades of the cloned CEO. He found it to be very relaxing indeed.

"That's actually very nice."

Krei had already told them about Momakase and as Hiro peered into the empty safe, Sam Catchem, flanked by Officer Groovy Groove and Detective Lizz Worthington-Grove, asked.

"Do you at least know what was stolen?"

Baymax ended his massage, allowing Krei to reply.

"That is classified information."

Hiro turned his head from the safe toward Krei, giving Officer Groove the chance to photograph it. He greeted him with a puzzled tilt of his head by two inches to the right. The others eyed him with suspicion and Tracy was the last to cross his arms with that same look before he finally spilled the beans.

"It was gravitational disrupter."

The eyes of his audience widened.

"An anti-grav device?"

Wasabi's words were about as high as the girls who exchanged confusing glances. Go-Go turned to Krei with a frustrated dagger in her left eye.

"And you let her steal it?"

Honey Lemon was frightened.

" _Dio_ , if that device falls into the Yakuza, we could be in deep shit."

"Not to worry," Krei reassured them. "She only made off with half of my prototype. The other half is still secure in my other secret vault."

"And where might that be?" asked Lizz.

"I know!" Fred sang. "The classic safe place to hide a safe is behind a bookcase!"

He placed his right hand on a globe and lifted the top, baring a cylinder of a button within the core and pressed his right index finger against it. Three seconds later, the globe went down with a statuette of sleek, silver plane and a map of Akuma Island pushed it's way to the right, revealing a safe that looked more like a microwave with it's neon blue buttons on the top left side.

As Krei's left hand picked up the cup of water, he warned in a stern voice.

"You had better not tell anyone what is inside that safe! Promise?"

He took a swig of the water while Tracy, Sam and Lizz crossed their left fingers behind their backs. There was little reason to trust Krei after his original self's brush with death at the hands of Yokai.

But, as the water held within the glass reached his mouth, it fell to the ground in fifty-eight pieces. It was not on contact; however, it had already been shattered to begin with, and would only fall apart in some kind of disruption. Dropping the top of the glass that he still kept in his right hand, Krei drew a frustrated groan.

Hiro had reckoned without his aunt checking up on him after she closed up the café.

"What a day," she yawned as he reached the living room. "Goodnight, Hiro."

She was about five steps forward, expecting a reply…but all was silent.

"Hiro?"

Aunt Cass stopped dead, asking for another occupant.

"Baymax?"

Fear began to settle in as she went up the stairs to their room.

"Hiro?"

It was all dark with a blue light shining through the windows and she could see the hump of a body the bed that Hiro left behind. But Cass knew better. She forwarded herself to the bed and her right hand pulled back the covers, revealing Mochi, who just stared at her disappointingly.

"You are in so much trouble," she muttered with venom lacing her voice.

Hiro soon got the call when he saw his aunt's portrait, beaming with her left thumb pointed up. He ordered to the others.

"Sssh! It's my aunt."

His right thumb pressed the call button and held the phone against his right ear. The tone of his voice was nervous.

"Hi, Aunt Cass!"

"HIRO! WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU?!"

"At the library? With my friends?" his reply was meek.

"And what are you doing there at this hour?"

"Studying, making flashcards, quizzing each other, eating healthy snacks and whatnot."

Wasabi's hands lying on the table, watched it slide to the left, having been hacked into eight seconds. He threw his arms up, muttering.

"Is there anything she didn't cut up?"

Aunt Cass heard this and was frantic. So frantic that her heart began beat faster at an exponential rate.

"WHO CUT UP WHAT?!"

"Go-Go cut them up so we could share the snacks!" Hiro protested.

Behind him, Krei's swivel chair began to loosed under the strain between the pole holding the chair and the bottom where the wheels were. He tipped backwards and fell hard, his spine going slightly further into his back.

"Now the numbness wears off," he moaned.

This was also heard by Aunt Cass, who trying not to hyperventilate.

"Hiro, what is going on?!"

"Almostdone! Seeyainabit! Lovyabye!"

With his rapid excuse complete, Hiro's left index finger shut the phone off.

Aunt Cass had heard that excuse before; about one year ago on the night Tadashi took him to SFIT. Speaking of Tadashi, Aunt Cass looked over at the desk and saw a photograph of him and Hiro smiling in a time when life had been a lot simpler for the both of them. Sitting to the right of the photograph was Megabot, it's yellow-skinned smiley face of insanity lying on it's right shoulder by five degrees. After putting _ni_ and _ni_ together (and remembering the deceased status of her oldest nephew) Cass scrunched up her face into an all-mighty glare with only one word she could think of.

"Botfighting."

Leaving Mochi to his own devices, she rushed down the stairs and grabbed her pocketbook and light blue jacket from the rack, muttering to herself.

"What is he thinking? Going to Ross Alley at this hour? Why if Tadashi were here he'd—"

She stopped, not daring to think of what she thought. Her eyes were focused on the olive green middle drawer under the sink in a corner. Opening it with her left hand, she had taken out a setting of six knives: a cleaver, a chef's knife, a paring, a boning, a bread knife and a steak knife.

"I'm not going unarmed," was all she had to say.

She wrapped them into a dark blue fabric Tojiro roll and stormed out the door.

Back in the "nard lab" and out of their suits, Sora and the members of Big Hero 6 (Tracy and the Crimestoppers had gone home for the night) were looking into a piece of non-photo blue that was shaped like the cylinder of an ocean liner's funnel having been cut off.

Wasabi, looking through it in the microscope, was amazed.

"I have never seen a cut like this. Not even my plasma blades are this precise."

Fred and Go-Go, looking behind him, were in awe.

"What are they?" she asked.

Wasabi turned clockwise with a craze beam.

"Graphene blades! They're thinner than paper but stronger than steel! This tech is cutting edge….!"

They looked at him like he was a real shithead.

"No pun intended."

Wasabi put on a serious mask as Honey, Sora, Hiro, Donald, Baymax and Goofy worked on other traces of evidence from her Linux laptop. Specifically, Krei's security footage of the crime taking shape that had been copied with Krei's permission.

"Wow, her knife is so sharp you cannot see it from this angle."

A still from Camera 01 showed Momakase in a profile view, a sneaky smile across her lips as she held the kitchen knife in her right hand, showing the blade in an upright position. Camera 02, showed a half-profile of Momakase looking sinister, but still wearing that same smile, yet somehow, the blade of the knife was invisible from the camera's vantage point.

"Very amazing," Sora replied, but it seemed very doubtful that he would be able to get his hands on one of those.

Hiro knew that with the woman's face being very clear and identifiable, they were certain that tracking her down would not be much of a problem.

"Baymax do you recognize her?"

"I do not have any information on this woman."

"I do!" came the voice of Fred. "My dad has a state-of-the-art bad guy database. Back to the Fred room!"

And they rushed out of the lab with further haste.

Aunt Cass, meanwhile, had taken the trolley over to Ross Alley, remembering some hint of Tadashi's rescue routes from Hiro's bot-fights from last year. It was dark with over fourteen story high buildings creeping over her in an ominous shape. Wires stretched across the red lanterns like spider webs tainted with blood. Aside from the distant police sirens fueling the fear into her ears, she could see the very signs of evidence that she never wanted to be married in the first place; from her right, two windows above her was a ginger-haired man slapping a black prostitute with his right hand, having not satisfied his desires for her. From that same building, he could hear someone else, another man say "GET THE FUCK OUTTA MY HOUSE, BITCH!" and the door opened, emitting a yellow-green light.

A strong white man with a dark-azure jacket, a tan yellow shirt and black trousers with matching shoes was aiming a Colt 1911 at a skinny dude with a grey shirt and forest green leggings, his feet covered by grey shoes. He fired the .22 caliber bullet into the man's stomach and his arms clutched it, trying to block the blood that was turning his shirt red. As the man closed the door, the skinny man saw Cass over his right shoulder and flung his arms around her, spreading the stains to the back of her shirt where her shoulder blades would be.

"Help me," were his last words before _rigor mortis_ had taken over his body.

Aunt Cass watched the man fall face forward, his hands hopelessly clinging for the very thing he tried to reach out for: his life.

"Nice place," she muttered before heading her way.

Her eyes darted from left to right, hoping to find a sign of any bot-fights taking shape within the area. Rats, a family of cockroaches, stray dogs and cats chased each other around her legs, but she clutched her purse very carefully and came to the end of a building lit by a purple essence. Felony Carl and a white man with a black goatee to match his hair who wore a brown jacket with black shoes, trousers and shirt named Hermando Elitz stood guarding a steel door.

Cass stopped for a short three seconds, then plastered on a face of courage and walked her way to the two men. Yet her response was not a very specific one as she was indeed certain that either of them knew what she was referring to.

"Excuse me?" she asked, lifting her left index finger. "Is this where the fight is?"

Hermando's right hand gave her a halt position as Carl asked.

"Yeah?"

Then Hermando's right hand grabbed the front strap of Aunt Cass' purse.

"What's in the bag?"

He snatched it from her before she had time to comply.

"That's mine, asshole! Give it back!"

He held it high above her while his right arm served as a barrier. He lowered it down and quickly saw the case before it was returned into the hand of its owner. He did not have to unwrap the purse to know what was inside.

"So you are a fighter?" asked Hermando at the way she snatched it back. "You should have said so."

He went behind Aunt Cass as Felony Carl ordered.

"Right this way, madam."

"But I'm not a fighter!"

Aunt Cass' protests had fallen on deaf ears. They took into her a rusty-red corridor that could have simulated the heat of hell, but did not. Instead, the temperature was pretty balanced and she nearly jumped at the sight of Felony Carl handing her a white napkin, at first assuming it to be a gun that was have her ending up in the same position of the man whose blood stained her shirt.

"Thank you," breathed Aunt Cass, her legs trying to regain balance.

She did not realize it at first, but she was standing on a round elevated platform. A spotlight came underneath her and she looked down once she had noticed that she was moving up and as she moved up she could sense the wraith of the almighty blinding His light into her eyes. Then she could feel the heat of flames behind her, followed by smoke coming from the walls. Suddenly, the smoke disappeared, and all Aunt Cass could hear next, were the sounds of cheers and joyful whistles from a crowd of one hundred patrons. She was surprised by the shot of flames spewing from the right, then a second one blowing fire from the left, reminding her of what became of Tadashi.

While Aunt Cass studied the flames, clutching the napkin to her chest as she did so. A man with salmon colored hair and round ruby red glasses came into her view, sharing the spotlight. He wore an oxblood necktie, a cream shirt, a crimson suit imitating a kimono with gold linings on each end of the vest, two white corset lines and currant geta sandals. In his right hand, was a microphone aimed at his mouth.

"Welcome, fighter! I am Yum Laboughé. Ringmaster of this underground extreme cooking competition!"

The flowers of flames sprouted again, frightening Cass until the meaning of the cooking competition entered her mind. It was confirmed to once a counter table with a bowl of grey and a bowl blue appeared to the left of a wooden cutting board, with a grey-blue cup of scoops and ladles. A similar, yet mirrored copy came on the right.

"The time has come," Mr. Laboughé announced, surprising Cass from behind. "To cook for your life, the time has come for…"

He belted the name into the microphone.

"FOOD FIGHT!"

Four patches of flames appeared around the tables and the audience their host an applause. Aunt Cass, her eyes staring out into the crowd, soon realized her mistake and while she wondered where Hiro was currently, she muttered rapidly.

"I have made a bad decision."

Three spotlights hovered over them in opposing, diffracting directions until they shined their lights on Aunt Cass. The crowd roared with cheers and Mr. Laboughé tried to get close to her without being a total ass.

"Who are you and do you have what it takes to eat your enemies alive?"

He handed the microphone twelve inches away from Cass, who responded meekly while lowering the napkin to her vagina incase she pissed herself out of fear.

"Well, Yum…my name is Cassandra Hamada—"

A flame presenting her half-profile image from the breasts down appeared on her right.

"And…we're just cooking, right?"

An infectious laugh came from every member of the audience.

"This is no ordinary cooking competition," Mr. Laboughé corrected. "This is a competition where cheating is acceptable and encouraged. Are you prepared to cook dirty?"

Aunt Cass didn't seem interested. She spoke the truth.

"That does not sound very sanitary."

"Spoken like a true loser!" the gaudy dressed announcer teased. "And now, your opponent, a man who needs no introduction, Bolton Gramercy!"

Hearing his name brought confusion into Cass' mind. In a blast of flames, he came up onto the stage, wearing a red headband and a brown roll under his right arm, followed by his flaming portrait on his left.

"You?!"

Bolton, whose was that a smug snake, looked over his right shoulder and saw Cass standing there with an open jaw. He approached her by two, his confidence and rude manners still stapled on. Had the two been married, Gramercy would have proven to be a very controlling husband.

"You're that little bird from the café, aren't you?"

"Yeah?"

"And I suppose this is your idea of a joke?"

"I did not mean to enter, I was just looking for my nephew. I think I'll be going now."'

Bolton sneered at her.

"Good, you should leave cooking to the _real_ chefs."

Mr. Laboughé held his left hand over his mouth in mock distress and the audience laughed, causing Aunt Cass to look back at them over her right shoulder with a glare.

"All right, I'll stay," she bemoaned.

Then her tone grew strong.

"We'll see who's the _real_ chef."

Mr. Laboughé handed Aunt Cass a cream-yellow headband and she put it around her forehead, greeting Bolton with anger.

"You're about the get stir-fried, shitface!"

Her face faltered by a bit, realizing.

 _I cannot believe I just said that._

The audience took this with "ooos" and "woahs" and Mr. Laboughé talked back into the microphone.

"Feisty. LET THE COOKING BEGIN!"

The flames sprouted from the tables and the grounds as the crowd threw up another roar of cheers. Aunt Cass took the left, while Bolton went on the right, unfolding their cases of knifes as they reached the countertop. Mr. Laboughé spoke into the microphone once more.

"Tonight's challenge: the perfect…crème brûlée."

Cass was surprised. She placed her left hand on her heart, shouting like a giddy school girl.

"Oh! I can do that!"

"But, you must use…"

Mr. Laboughé held out his left hand at three men in blue traditional chef uniforms standing before a long table with three silver tray covers. The first one was…

"Gummy iguanas…"

Three yellow bowls full of them appeared.

"Cilantro…"

A blue square pot of two cilantro plants appeared with a smaller one on the bottom.

"And..an ostrich egg!"

Or at least four of them on the end of the table; all placed in four dark blue boxes nested with straw. Aunt Cass studied the triptych of food and felt weirded out.

"Wha?"

Mr. Laboughé chuckled before yelling.

"LET THE FOOD FIIIIIIIIGHT! BEGIN!"

Above them on the top of the right-side alcove, was a red square timer with red digital numbers. It read "30:00" before it changed to "29:59", commencing the cook-off. Aunt Cass had no time to loose.

Meanwhile in his father's secret chamber, before a 1972 NASA mainframe computer, Fred and his friends were prepared to learn more about Krei's attacker, considering he didn't know too much about her other than her skills (and he was recovering from the toxin) and Wasabi couldn't help but notice how primitive it looked.

"You said it was state-of-the-art," he muttered to a quizzical Honey Lemon and Fred.

"Well, it was back in 1972," Fred replied, going in front of it. "But my Dad keeps the data totally up to date."

"Then why does your father need this?" Sora asked. "Is he like a neo-traditionalist?"

He had picked this up from Hiro during his first time in the city last year.

"Sort of," answered Fred. "But he loves this thing so much, he was unwilling to let it go."

Hiro and Go-Go were by a stack of nine boxes from large to small containing peach orange punch cards. Donald studied on his right wind, looking at it as inferior compared to the Gummi Ship's technology, which it was.

"Must you even use punch cards for this?"

"They are _up-to-date_ punch cards," Fred corrected.

Hiro stood up, holding one in his right hand.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's get started."

Fred took it from him with both hands.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! First we have to let the tubes warm up."

His right hand grabbed the switch on the left-hand side of the computer and pulled it down. The magnetic tape data storage began to spin, absorbing the electricity within the house and thus the lights dimmed. Old computers, as it had been known were prone to being more powerful than newer ones and needed a large amount of energy to be supplied with.

"Punch card time!" Fred shouted, holding the one from Hiro in his left hand.

He rushed over to the machine and blew a huff of breath on the card. Then, holding it between his palms and index fingers, he fed the card into the machine. It took them at least a second to get into the machine so that they could be processed properly. After an hour and ten minutes, the team grew tired and Fred had already inserted ten cards before the three light bulbs on the right-hand side of the machine began lighting up in a fading progressive fashion.

"And just like that, we have a match!"

Hiro jolted himself awake, afraid of another Tadashi nightmare plaguing his mind.

"Finally," said Go-Go, rubbing her eyes.

Honey and Wasabi, who had been resting on a low-powered Baymax, stretched their arms and Honey straightened her glasses. Sora used Baymax as a pillow from behind while Donald and Goofy snored on the floor. They woke up as well, just in time to hear Fred rip out a one foot by one-foot roll of lined paper.

"Her name is Momakasei," he read. "She's the best sushi thief and chief and San Fransokyo as well as her native hometown in Japan. She is very violent, very volatile and extremely dangerous."

Hiro's eyes began to droop.

"Then she must be hungry to get the rest of that disrupter."

Baymax, standing five feet behind him, presented a clock on his monitor with no numbers but red arms. The time according to the clock was 5:55.

"Hiro, you are scheduled to wake up in five hours. You will not get the recommended level of sleep."

Hiro's eyes widened, and he snapped into full consciousness.

"Aw, _kuso!_ I did not realize it was so late! Come on, Baymax! Aunt Cass is going to kill me!"

And he dragged Baymax by the right arm out of the room, leaving the team and Sora to themselves.

Speaking of Aunt Cass, it was only nineteen minutes and forty-eight seconds before the time ran out. She grabbed for the medium bowl of gummy iguanas while Bolton's hands attached themselves to the smaller one. They each took one piece of cilantro from the bottom pot and when Aunt Cass reached for the first ostrich egg, Bolton's left arm gave a defensive stance that allowed his elbow to push the egg off the nest. It crashed to the floor with a face of fright and sadness emitting from the yolk.

He took two eggs, leaving Aunt Cass to take the last one.

Bolton chopped off the head of the egg with a kitchen knife, properly spilling the contents into his round grey bowl. Cass, using her left hand, cracked her egg against the front of the bowl and let the yolk pour into hers with only a few tiny pieces of the shells falling into it. She threw remnants of the shells behind her and Bolton began stirring with a batter in his right hand. His work was very rapid, but not as rapid as Cass Hamada who worked in equal synchronization with the cilantro, which came next. They used cleavers to chop it up into bits and finally once the crème brûlée had been finished with all the contents poured in, they used medium sized canisters of flamethrowers to finish it off.

But Mr. Gramercy was not through yet, his left hand placed the still-flaming flamethrower on the countertop and it picked up the egg. The flame nozzle came within contact of his creation and it was quickly extinguished by a male stage hand before his disappointed mug looked up at the time, which changed from twenty to nineteen seconds.

Complacent with his dish, he rushed over to the judge's table along with Aunt Cass, whose entrée looked perfect compared to the burnt top of his, which had a five-inch stain on the sides. They placed them on the wooden table before the three judges: A bald Caucasian with sapphire jacket and cyan shirt, a black haired Japanese-American in a traditional haiku and a scarlet-haired woman with round gold earrings, a dull-grey shirt and a belt across her bodice.

All three took their turns from both dishes with spoons in their right hands, given their "rightful" ideals about food. Seven seconds passed quickly by as Cass gave Bolton the smile of success, implying to him that she had already beaten him. Then, Mr. Laboughé stepped into the spotlight and announced.

"Tonight's chef supreme is…Cass Hamada!"

His free right hand grabbed Aunt Cass' left wrist, followed by her flaming portrait. The crowd applauded, but Bolton Gramercy looked like he had been shot while standing up, hanging by a loose noose. From the far back, Felony Carl and Hermando watched her with looks of interest.

"She won without cheating," Carl muttered to his ally.

Duke and Sugar, watching under the front of the stadium in the back row, exchanged sinister grins before looking up, not noticing Mr. Laboughé confronting Mr. Gramercy with the common punishment of loss.

"Present your knifes to the victor."

Bolton's heart shattered at the sound of that. He clutched the roll close to his heart.

"But they were a gift from my nana."

"To the victor!"

His tone was harsh, and Bolton placed his left leg forward, bowing before a surprised Cass as he held out the knives for her. She was sympathetic for the poor bastard.

"I don't think it is necessary."

Mr. Laboughé leaned closer to her left ear. There was venom in his tone.

"I don't make the rules, I enforce them. Now take the goddamned knives."

Cass took them with both hands, and with Mr. Gramercy still bowing, she held them up as the crowd chanted her given name. She felt proud, content and complete, wondering what Hiro, and Tadashi, if he was with her, had anything to say. Remembering her surviving nephew, she rushed out of the door some eighteen minutes later after sampling her own creation.

The "Grapevine" a name given by Spaldoni for his purple colored wiretaps, was located on the right hand upper corner of an office high above Duke and Sugar's vantage point. It had three pillars of purple neon lights in front of the window and had a ceiling light of yellow gold. The floor was constructed of the purist marble and the desk had black and red squares changing in light and color from each of its 8 rows.

Sugar and Duke, each wearing a pair of tiny earbuds, listened for any trace of sound, until they heard two voices: a man and a woman's.

"Well, do you have the gravitational disrupter?" asked the man whose voice sounded gruff.

"I have acquired it," said the soft voice of the woman.

Next came the sounds of knives twirling and a case being opened up. There was silence, then…

"THE FUCK?! This is only half of the device! You expect me to pay you half the damn thing?!"

"You hired me to get the device in Krei's safe for your benefactor. So this was all I could find in his safe. And yes, I expect to be paid."

"The fucking thing will be useless to me without the other half!" the man almost sounded like a spoiled child. "I need that thing now!"

"Then I suppose you want me to break in again?"

"Fine! When you have the whole device, let me know!"

The sound of the door being slammed shut followed suit, along with the arrival of Mr. Yama walking his way down the stairs on thundering footsteps. Duke and Sugar did not breath another word until he was gone. A sudden epiphany came into Sugar's mind.

"A gravitational disrupter? Texie's gonna love this!"

They got out of their seats, rushing back to the Club Ritz.

At the Ritz, Texie, standing behind the bar, was waving her hands gracefully in the air, almost as if in a dream. The music of _Carmen_ was blasting from her jukebox on the right end of the bar. IN front of her was Black Pearl, her O-shaped mouth keeping in synch with the song. Not to mention that she was singing along with the music and the woman's voice was just about as good as her own. The twiddling of Texie's fingers provided an impromptu conducting of the orchestration. Then she let her left hand down, letting the right one take over for her before the music stopped—no thanks to Pearl herself.

"I'm bored. Why not we go out?"

"At this hour?" Texie asked incredulously, dropping her right hand. "Where would we even go to?"

Black Pearl darted her eyes left and right.

"I don't know? A modernist club?"

Texie leaned her head forward.

"A modernist club with excitement?"

"Yes."

Black Pearl nodded. Texie smiled at this before she threw her right hand against her left cheek.

"How's that for excitement?" she sneered.

Pearl's eyes looked upon her with restrained sadness.

"Why'd you hit me?"

"To prove your loyalty to me."

"Exactly," Texie aimed her right index finger back and forth between Pearl and herself. "Now are you going to help me uncover what's been going on in the underground cooking competitions or not?"

"I will."

"Then make sure you learn the damn tune, because one of these Big Hero 6 might get involved in something related to music, is that clear?"

"Yes, it is."

Black Pearl's voice was as plain and simple as the reply, but before they could go back to singing lessons, Duke and Sugar walked through the door.

"Miss Garcia," Duke was the first to speak. "You would not believe what we just witness."

"Two things," Sugar corrected. "A new competitor, a woman that I haven't seen before and a gravitational disrupter that Duke and I had been eavesdropping on from the office upstairs."

"A gravitational disrupter?"

Texie was interested. She smoothed her right thumb and index fingers against her chin in thought as she turned her head towards her young protégé.

"Pearl, I want you to go with them. Perhaps you can learn a thing or two on how to be extra stealthy, seeing as how you evaded the police last time."

"Sounds good," the lady in black agreed.

The agreement between all three of them, however, would have the robbery taking place once the benefactor, who Texie later learned from Duke and Sugar to be Yama, deliver the second half of the gravitational disrupter to his buyer.

Sora, Goofy, Hiro, Donald and Baymax returned to the Lucky Cat Café on silent feet, wondering over their future actions.

"All I need is a good story to tell Aunt Cass regarding my absence."

Baymax had his own ideas.

"Honesty has been shown to have significant health benefits."

"Not in this case," Hiro muttered.

They entered the café, with Hiro opening the door with both hands and they could see and hear the empty, quiet atmosphere, waiting for a reply from Aunt Cass.

"Aunt Cass! We're home!"

Hiro's shout faded into dead silence. Baymax looked over at the counter, suggesting.

"I do not see any visual of Aunt Cass, perhaps she has gone to bed."

Hiro and Sora went over to search the other areas of the home. First he placed his right hand on the front pillar of the staircase, asking.

"Aunt Cass?"

Sora looked in the bedroom.

"Miss Hamada?"

But what he saw was a darkened room with a neatly made bed.

Baymax, standing with Goofy on his right and Donald on his left, look up at the room.

"Scanning."

His head took a right pan across the room and his readout found Mochi, sleeping peacefully on the counter. Baymax ignored the calico and his camera eyes went back Hiro and Sora, looking distressed.

"Aunt Cass is not here."

Hearing those words caused Hiro's heart (which had a condition, if not specifically a palpitation) to beat faster than the moment Tadashi died in his arms. His right fingers ran through his hair.

" _Kuso._ She must have gone out to look for me."

But he didn't have to leave so soon, for Aunt Cass was opening the door, carrying her purse in her right arm. She looked like she won a well-earned reward at the Oscars with the way her smile was complacent and carefree. It dropped when she saw her nephew.

"Hiro! Hi!"

Hiro lifted his left hand up.

"Hi!"

Then dropped it along with his slightly plastic smile.

"Were you out just now looking for me?"

Aunt Cass darted her eyes to the left, unsure of what she wanted to say.

"Um…yes? Is there a big deal about it?"

For the strangest of all reasons, the two seemed to switch bodies…metaphorically. Hiro's mood went sour.

"Do you have any idea what time it is? You scared me half to death. Don't you remember that I have a heart condition?"

"Right now," Baymax intoned. "Your heart seems to be in good condition. Your 50% proximity to death is inaccurate."

Aunt Cass walked past him and others, sidestepping as she walked backwards.

"Yeah, so don't be overdramatic. I just took an air, okay?"

Hiro walked over to her, standing before the alcove leading to the upstairs.

"You did not even leave a note! Where the hell were you? You smell like gummy fish."

"I don't, I smell like gummy iguanas. And now that it is late, I am going to bed."

"No! We are going to talk, now!"

Mochi viewed the scene with a certain tolerance before Cass sighed with defeat.

"Fine. You can tell me all about your robotics club in the morning."

Hiro nodded.

"I agree with you. Good night."

"Good night."

And Aunt Cass walked up the stairs, leaving Baymax bathing in the light of the café.

"Shall I set an alarm for picking this up tomorrow?"

"No."

Aunt Cass and Hiro said this in unison, while Sora, who said nothing at all, gestured to his companions to return to the hotel.

The next morning in the kitchen, Aunt Cass was chopping up a long piece of broccoli with a kitchen knife that had only yesterday belonged to Bolton Gramercy. She couldn't believe the sheer agility she had while wielding it. It was almost like the knife was magic, for the chops were done very well without effort and they looked so…straight and firm, lacking any accidental defects like a tiny chip.

"Wow, Gramercy's nana had a good taste in these knives."

As Aunt Cass studied the kitchen knife, Hiro passed the counter wearing his backpack over both shoulders.

"See you later, Aunt Cass!" he called, his eyes fixated on the door. "Ihaveanotherroboticsmeetingtoattendtosodon'tworryaboutmefordinner! Bye!"

And he banged the door, leaving Aunt Cass in a sate of confusion over his rapid speech, which she understood. As she called "Bye, Hiro!" she studied the knife still in her left hand and figured that with Hiro out of the house, she could have some fun all to herself, but that little voice inside her cerebrum telling her about responsibility reminded her of Hiro's welfare, if not well-being. However, it was getting smaller by the second until it was completely inaudible. Her recklessness, passed on to Tomeo, then to Tadashi, then to Hiro, was starting to overcome her. She telephoned Tess and wondered if she would be able to run the café by herself while she went out to "a party". Despite her delicate condition, Tess agreed.

That night, at the very top of the Benito's advertisement, tinged with pinks lighting, stood Momakase, in her modified version of a _gi_ ; blue and black spandex with padding and a cobalt mask covering her eyes like warpaint from the Iron Age, staring out into the city, delivering her own example of a dramatic pose, before she jumped and rushed along the edges of the cobblestone flats toward the Krei Tech headquarters. She attached her kitchen knife to a glowing blue jump-line and fired at the fin, remembering the location of Krei's office.

Hanging upside down, her suit masking her dark nature, she pulled out two other kitchen knives from her pockets: one for each hand, that she used to create a circle in the window which fell forwards without breaking, for it was made with strong fiber materials. Perching from the glass, she leaped forwards…and the lights turned on.

"Hey there, looking for something?"

Momakase' head turned to Hiro, who stood there with Baymax and Sora with his legs crossed while Wasabi, lowered on his knees, Honey and Go-Go, Fred, Goofy, Donald and Detective Tracy with his Tommy gun surrounded her. She just gave the team a sinister smile.

"Well, this is cute. Do you really think you can stop me?"

"I can!"

Wasabi shouted this as he pushed his body forwards, intending to throw a right jab at Momakase' chin, but she sidestepped by five feet forward while her left leg swept the white floor and made contact with Wasabi's right knee. He fell to the ground, landing on the right-hand side of his body. Baymax observed the knives in her hands, stating this to her with the right distraction and discouragement.

"Knives can be dangerous, especially when thrown."

Momakase just scoffed callously.

"Fuck you, robot."

She switched to a pair of katanas and swung left and right at Baymax, who just crouched down while she ran her feet on her head and flipped reverse clockwise to bring her right katana down on Baymax's right hand, to which the blow was blocked by Sora. He pushed with both hands on the Kingdom Key Chain, grunting with the strain of Momakase's force pushing down upon him.

"No one give any of my friends the 'F' word," he seethed through his teeth. "Especially if they are robots."

He pushed at least 30 inches forward, generating the light of his heart and soul into the Key. His heartbeat and adrenaline increased and his eyes were shut tightly at the exact second in history that he gained the upper hand. The invisible force of it all pushed Momakase backwards, but her hands, still holding the katanas, gripped the countertop of the bookshelf.

That served as the right moment for Hiro to mentally summon his microbots from his pockets and form a rope that wrapped around her right wrist and tugged at the katana. Momakase's efforts soon proved to be futile when her strength had shut down on her right hand and her fingers released the sword, which ended up in Hiro's left hand, while his empty right one formed an exact replica made of the microbots. He smiled at his success, but Momakase was fast enough to pull out her kitchen knife, and Hiro's smile dropped.

" _Kuso,_ " he muttered before delivering a parry with his new swords.

Hiro had some moments of sparring with Tadashi at times when they reenacted lightsaber duels, but nothing could prepare him for the real force of sword play that he was about to face. As soon as his microbot katana clashed with hers the top part fell off from a sliced bottom. Reminding himself to build his bots to stronger materials, Hiro dropped the swords and cowered behind Krei's desk. Momakase delivered a left swing and Wasabi, Sora flanking him on his left, armed themselves at the ready, with Wasabi shouting.

"You're goin' down!"

The two began to spar left and right as Momakase forced her two combatants backwards to the blue double doors. Three strikes followed after Wasabi, his back pinned to the door, asked.

"So the knifes are graphene, right? You have got to tell me."

"Yes, they are? Want a closer look?"

Momakase's kitchen knife, wielded in her left hand faced the blade forward where it became invisible to Wasabi's eyes. Three slashes later, the gauntlets that powered his plasma blades fell into a hundred and eighty pieces. Sora, who had ducked out of the way, walked behind her and raised the Key above his head. But Momakase was enough for her right hand to form knuckles and threw it backwards, almost breaking Sora's nose on contact once he fell back first to the floor.

"You boys have lasted three seconds longer than I thought," Momakase sneered, producing a small black grenade with four blue lines between her left thumb and index fingers. " _Sayōnara._ "

The grenade made contact with the floor and Momakase was covered from toe to head in a heavy cloud of smoke. When it disappeared, so did she, and all Hiro, Sora and Wasabi could see were each other exchanging confused looks and the safe opened all the way. Hiro could only conclude the worst.

"Aside from being able to blow smoke, she now has the power of gravity at her fingertips. We have to get it back before she uses it hurt somebody!"

Sora soothed his right fingers against his Adam's apple.

"Or worse, killed."

"Well, I thought this experience was pretty exciting," Wasabi added.

Of all the many times he overcame his OCD, this had to be one of the many times Wasabi genuinely admitted on how _pumped_ he was about it.

Back at the Lucky Cat Café, Aunt Cass changed the "We're Open" sign to "Sorry, We're Closed" as she prepared herself for another round in _Food Fight_. Likewise, she left with her purse and greeted the bouncers from the last time with respect of authority. Her next opponent however, was a financier who was skilled in the art of the empty hand. He had dark hair and a bearded moustache, with a _gi_ as red as blood and trousers as black as night. He also wore sandals. For the cook-off, she tossed a pancake in a skillet, added ketchup, chopped a single onion into twelve slices, wrestled her left arm with an octopus before finally serving up a cheese sauced soufflé laced with lotus petals for odor. For the second time, she was the winner, yet her requests to have her flaming portrait altered to a more professional one went unheeded.

She then squared off against a sandwich maker by wielding a torch against her own, drawing the top slice of bread in the shape of an anime teddy bear. Afterwards, she stirred up some yolk while her competitor, a graying long haired man with a pale rosemary t-shirt and blue trousers fired a barrage of oranges from a pitching machine. Sensing this near-approach of danger, she turned counterclockwise and deflected the oranges with the skillets in both hands. The crowd cheered for her pair of beef tacos and two slices of lime with a triangular bowl of red salsa in the middle.

On the next round, Cass was blindfolded by Mr. Laboughé with a white sash wrapped around her eyes. Using her senses to decorate a cheesecake with red-purple frosting, she succeeded without ever so much as peeking. To Mr. Laboughé's surprise, the frosted artwork seemed to resemble him, smiling his ever so friendly smile. Overwhelmed with gratitude, he gave the cake his own personal praise. Even the judges found it admiring.

The crowd chanting her name continued all the way into Cass' dreams, when she was awakened by Hiro in her bedroom the following morning. Sora and Baymax greeted her by Baymax opening up the blidns with his left hand.

"Good morning, Aunt Cass," the puffy robot tweeted.

The rays of sunshine penetrated her eyelids where Baymax's voice failed, but compared to his warmth and Sora's silent wave of a hello, Hiro was absolutely livid.

"Do you have any idea what time it is? It's 8:45! The café should be open by now!"

He paused to let Cass sit up with crossed legs and he shouted words that were almost regretful.

"Who are you and what the hell have you done with my _obasan?_ "

Aunt Cass just gave Hiro a half-masted sneak of a smile.

"Relax, _oi_ , they'll get their coffee."

"You're supposed to be the responsible one. I mean, what would Tadashi say if he were here?"

Aunt Cass' reply was vaguely similar to Hiro's when Tadashi asked him about how his parents would react to his bot-fighting career.

"He'd probably scold me. But that was a year ago. There is nothing wrong with going out a night or two to cut loose some slack."

Hiro crossed his arms.

"But what _exactly_ do you do all these nights, where do you even go?"

Aunt Cass stretched her legs over the floor.

"The movies? Your father and I just loved going to the movies when we were kids, I wasn't too big a fan of _A Cinderella Story_ —"

Before she could go into gratuitous details, Hiro shouted back.

"JUST GET TO WORK!"

"Okay, I will!"

And she rushed out of the bed.

"Next time," Sora placed his hands on his hips. "Don't be so harsh."

"Well she has no idea how it feels when someone is obviously lying to you."

"Says the genius with the crappy lies."

Hiro tried to stand up for himself.

"MY LIES ARE NOT SHITTY!"

This shout caused Baymax's right hand, which was busily stroking Mochi, to spontaneously create an electric friction from his rubbery skin onto Mochi's fur. Every single follicle went up as sharp as a spike and all three were fortunate that he had not been shocked to death.

They waited until 8:00 pm when Cass went back to Ross Alley. She went out the door, nervously excited and the party of three followed her from a certain distance of nineteen feet. Once they had snuck themselves onto the front of the trolley (Baymax rolled behind them in his luggage) they came to the alley on quiet feet. Cass did not suspect that she was being followed and whenever did she hear footsteps that did not sound like her own, she mentally brushed it off as an echo.

"What is she even doing here?" Hiro wondered in alarm. "She could get killed."

Desperate not to lose another relative, Hiro watched Aunt Cass speaking to Hermando, who opened the door with his right hand to let her in. Then both persons walked inside. Hiro rushed to the door just in time to wedge his right arm into the doorway before it closed. The pain was obvious to his joints and felt paralyzed by the sudden impact of the not-so-defacing crash. Sora helped him to push the door open, catching a glimpse of the hellish network of pipes that lay inside.

Inside, Cass wrapped the apron around her waist and Hiro arrived just in time to see the platform ascending to the stage without him, his right arm extended outwards in vain. He could only ask himself:

"What is going on?"

Inside the arena, Duke and Sugar awaited the arrival of Yama, the Grapevine still implanted in the office above them. The two listened through each earbud; Duke on the right, Sugar on the left. Imposing footsteps that sounded like heavy drums broke into their ears, until the next thing they heard was the sound of two sliding doors opening, being forced open by two hands.

"Did you get the whole damn device?"

Yama's tone was irritable, Momakase kept her cool.

"Was it ever in doubt? One anti-grav device with a seventy-meter range radius."

"Good for you," Yama smiled. "I will pay you in double."

But Momakase's tone took on a very cautious one. Her right hand lifted the device as a clear sign that she was keeping it for herself.

"Actually, things have changed. I'm going to sell it on the black market to the highest bidder."

Yama, trying hard not to loose his temper, could only seethe through his teeth.

"You little bitch! HOW COULD TURN AGAINST ME?!"

"It's a criminal nature," Momakase's caustic tongue was getting the better of her. "Greed always wins in the end."

And the knife held in her left hand dug under a middle layer of raw codfish and flipped upwards. It flew straight into Yama's mouth, which was open enough to scream, but instead of that, what he felt was nothing short of an average choke; his eyes and his jaw felt numb and he began to wobble back and forth.

"Delicious, isn't it? The toxin I added give it a real…kick. Think of it was my own way saying: fuck you, asshole." Yama fell to the ground on his back, and the bodyguards, dressed in navy blue _gi_ lifted him by the arms.

"Take him home then give him the antidote."

Momakase's orders were followed by her tossing the sharp golden flask to the heavy in black hair, then her attention span turned to the window, where she could see Aunt Cass readying herself for the action ahead.

"Who is she?"

"A newcomer," answered the heavy holding Yama by his right arm. "I hear she's the new undefeated champion."

Momakase's ears could not believe his words, but she proved to be smug and confident over the belief that she could dice her like carrots.

"Not…for…long…."

Duke and Sugar, overhearing this, exchanged looks of interest, wondering if Momakase would prove to be a worthy opponent.

From the entryway of the stage, Baymax viewed the show unfolding from their vantage point.

"I detect Aunt Cass….in the spotlight."

Hiro and Sora rushed to the row closest to the stage, where they could see his aunt just as the way Baymax described it, raising her arms in the air like a true show-off.

"Aunt Cass!"

Cass followed the sound of he nephew's voice, walking over to him.

"Hiro? What are you and Sora doing here?"

"We came to get you out," Sora replied.

"And why should I?" Cass rested her right hand against the wooden wall below them. "I'm winning."

"And now, back in the rig not avenge her title….you know her as reigning champion…Momakase!"

Mr. Laboughé gave his words, and his free left hand out to the woman who rose from the depths of Hell, who just stood there, perfectly motionless except for the platform that created her ascent, a wicked smile plastered on her blood red lips. Aunt Cass seemed to be impressed by her posture.

"I hear she's good."

"And a real killer," Sora added without a wimp. "We need to get you out before she hacks you into bits."

"The only one who's gonna be hacking this bitch into bits, is me."

And she marched her way to her newest opponent before Hiro could grab her by the back of her shirt. Then he felt another hand, a strong one gripping his hood—Felony Carl.

"Sorry, Hiro, but it's inappropriate to mess with the other fighters."

"But she's my aunt!"

"Do I look like I give a fuck?"

Hiro desperately grabbed ahold of the railing, but his arms outstretched themselves to the point in which his hands were released and the strength of both Hermando and Carl caused his body to limp along the floor. Baymax and Sora followed him out.

Outside, he was tossed five feet into the air, landing on his abdomen before Sora and Baymax came out as well.

"You know," Sora placed his hands against hips. "I'm beginning to see where you got your bot-fight obsession from."

"She is my father's sister," Hiro added like it was something forced and contrived. "But I'd think we had better call the team."

He pulled out his phone, tapping the numbers before putting against his right ear.

"Go-Go, we found Momakase in Ross Alley and she's about TO CARVE UP AUNT CASS!"

Duke and Sugar watched from their seats, unsure if now seemed to be time to grab the anti-gravitational device or just the show. Perhaps Momakase had something better, something less heavier, like her menagerie of knifes.

"Let me guess: a bitch from some nothing café who draws little animal faces in cappuccino?"

Aunt Cass stood her ground.

"You wish you could make one like mine."

"Tonight! The championship challenge: Speed Sushi!"

Mr. Laboughé revealed the two tables behind him: On the bottom half was a yellow bowl of broccoli and two radishes. Two slices of tuna on the wooden board to the right of it with two whole sections of tuna and koi fish on ice. Four individuals of pink salmon were lying on ice in a wooden bowl while the wooden table above it had an ice laden tray carrying a four-foot long bluefin. It was definitely a challenge worth executing.

"Sharpen your knives ladies," Mr. Laboughé warned them. "This could get rough."

Cass rushed first but felt the front of her right ankle make contact with something suitably hard enough for her to fall face first. Momakase had thrown her kitchen knife at her and it dug eight inches into the ground.

Duke seemed to recall that Momakase's knifes were more powerful and sharper than anyone else's, and thinking that Texie would find better use for it

"You are going down."

That was Aunt Cass could mutter before she sprinted forwards…and Duke rushed right in to retrieve the knife before anyone could stop.

Fred, watching from an alcove underneath his suit, could only compliment both competitors.

"Wow, I never knew cooking could be so intense. I am never going to look at a sandwich the same way again."

Dressed in their armor, Hiro and Baymax stood alongside him.

"Baymax," Hiro commanded. "Scan the building for the anti-gravitational disruptor."

Following the order, Baymax's visor turned into a blue grid, followed by a red vertical line that went from the right to the left. His readout found the device behind the Plexiglas screen of fish that hid the upstairs office from view.

"Gravity disruptor…located."

"Then let's go!"

Hiro and the team rushed to the office, the thought of hoping to save Aunt Cass occupying his mind.

Aunt Cass on the other hand, was holding meat cleaver above the dead of the four-foot bluefin. Before she could, literally, take a stab at it, Momakase threw her steak knife at the top of the blade and it collapsed onto the neck, followed by seven other slices. She could not believe her unintended help once Cass added the soy sauce to her dish. The knife, which was pinned to the western wall of the arena, was confiscated by Sugar.

Before she could grab an avocado, Momakase took the one intended for Aunt Cass and threw it at her from her right hand like a dog. A dog that was about to face the hard-cold face of a loser's at the mercy of human supremacy. But Aunt Cass stepped her way onto the stove and her left hand grabbed avocado. She landed her behind in-between a mauve-haired girl in red and white on her right and a young man with black hair and a tank top with an ocean blue circle in the middle. Both of them were Caucasian and wore black on the lower halves of their bodies.

Momakase watched Aunt Cass with envy as she added ketchup in the shape of a heart to her sushi. Luckily for her, a pink squid was nearby and it was still fresh with ink, so she squeezed on the squid with both hands that sent a jet of ink towards her opponent. But Aunt Cass was fast enough to grab a grey bowl from the floor, shieling herself from the attack putting the ink to good use.

"It is in this room."

After prying the doors open with booth hands, Sora and Hiro went underneath Baymax and took one quick look before looking back at his brother's creation over his left shoulder.

"This'll be easy,"

But the sudden surprised looks on the faces of his compadres soon corrected the fight they were have to commence and it began with Go-Go throwing a right jab at the first heavy she saw: a black balding man with a five-inch scar from a knife down his right eye. The blow threw him across the room and had his black plastered against the window.

Meanwhile, down on the arena floor, similar feats were taking shape. Aunt Cass and Momakase were rolling their sushi into single cylinder rolls, which would then be cut into eight sections.

"You are not as good as you think you are."

"Then that means I will have to be better than you."

"We'll see about that."

What might have sounded like a gong being hit with a shrapnel of armor brought Momakase's attention to the office above. Silhouettes of the fighting combatants danced across the screen. Trouble had bloomed out of her lack of responsibility, so her right hand set the sushi dish down on the judges table and her left hand shot out a butcher's knife that traveled at the speed of light, bringing a quick snap to the middle of a rope held by two pulleys and a net, often used to capture irresponsible contestants, saw to it that Aunt Cass was pinned to the floor.

"This looks bad for Cass," Mr. Laboughé tisked to the audience. "She needs to get her dish to the judges before the timer runs out…in case you already haven't known."

Aunt Cass seemed to be complacent with the fact that she could easily lift the flimsy net up and she would easily find herself a seat in the winner's circle as always. But to her disappointment (and the heavy grunts to go with it), she found that the net was indeed made with the traditional fabric of rope…with titanium cables hidden the core of the fabric to weigh it down. Momakase passed her, slowly and callously.

"I'll be back to collect your knifes."

Aunt Cass' reply was nothing short of a growling expletive.

With the trio of heavies having landed pell-mell on top of each other, Wasabi prepared his right blade to cut the safe open, intent on lifting the top of the steel box open, which he did without effort.

"Ain't no graphene blades, but they do the trick just fine."

He held the prized device in his left hand, admiring it's blue and silver nature…

"That! Is mine, you bastard!"

Momkase stood there, looking really steamed up. Her hands held onto the sliding doorway, keeping her body perfectly in-between.

"But you stole it!" Goofy argued.

"And you really shouldn't be that offended," Fred placed his hands on his hips. "Because it was not yours to begin with."

Wielding both of her kitchen knifes, Momakase twirled them left and right, releasing her grip on them. The sharp blades shot forwards at the average top speed, with the butcher's knife nearly bifurcating Go-Go's forehead and the kitchen knife shooting over Fred's left arm, nearly grazing it. She rushed forward toward the device…but that was when Donald stepped in to save the day with a loud: "STOPZA!"

Her glare of hatred, her posture of a rushing wind and her blades of graphene had literally frozen Momakase into a perfectly living statue of all that was herself in an entirety. Wasabi, observing the time-displaced woman of a few seconds, had sudden fears coming into his mind that the spell would wear off soon. Stepping forward, he relaxed his fingers, not knowing that the device was still in his hands.

When an anti-gravitational device is activated, it would have to be done by forcing the two edges together like a coupling, which is how the machine started to whir when it made contact with the floor. Things, from Wasabi's view, started to turn blue, ocean blue with a weird sensation that he was _floating_.

"It really does work!"

The rest of the team agreed with him, holding onto themselves as they and Momakase floated upwards by six feet to the ceiling.

"Ten! Nine! Eight!"

The crowd counting the seconds that ticked by dawned an awful resolution for Aunt Cass as she sat under the strong net. She could almost imagine Tadashi reprimanding her, embarrassingly as did not seem like a very common scene for a parent to be reprimanded his own child. If Tomeo had done the same, which he kept on a straight and narrow path, she would be the one reprimanding him like any true sibling would do. But as for now, she just sat, crisscrossed to await the loss that would befall upon her and her menagerie of knifes.

 _Well Tomeo, you were right, you can't win them all._

Perhaps it was the wings of his spirit that helped her to her feet, or the blue tint of the anti-gravitational disruptor that lifted the net from the ground along with her and the audience. There was some time left, as some complications from the effects of the ray had slowed down the timer, giving Aunt Cass ample time to regain her victory. She saw a white cover on her right-hand side and grabbed it with that hand to conceal the floating contents on her left. Then, Aunt Cass spring her right foot from the wall of the countertop and rushed over to the judges' table.

 _On second thought, maybe you can win them all._

Time was ticking. There were only four seconds left on the timer. Aunt Cass brought her dish over to the black haired judge in the white kimono and before he had time to take it in, the timer went down to all three zeros and Mr. Laboughé, trying to compose his footing, screamed in relief.

"SHE DID IT! It's all over now but the judging!"

He lay on his back, finding this new experience to be relaxing.

"And the floating!"

He added this before all fantasy that had come true brought him back down to earth, literally. Wasabi had managed to turn off the disrupter by separating the two sections apart and Sora, who could have sworn to have seen Momakase twitch her head to the right by an inch, aimed his Keyblade forward and casted.

"Sleepga!"

Slowly by the seconds that turned into an impending rate, Momakase's eye lids began to close and the last she heard, was Aunt Cass decrying her victory.

"I won!"

After shaking Mr. Laboughé's right hand with her left, Aunt Cass gave a standing ovation to crowd that chanted her name seven times over. She even received a bouquet of white roses from the female judge, promising her that it would supply a lovely aroma of yearly spring within the walls of the Lucky Cat Café.

Duke and Sugar were on the way to Club Ritz by the time Sora and Big Hero 6 blasted through the roof, carefully observing the three graphene knifes that Momakase had left behind on the arena floor. When they entered, Texie was with Boris Arson in the conference room, surrounding him seductively. It almost seemed like a trace of the two preparing to consummate in an imaginary private bed when Boris broke Texie out of her dirty thoughts.

"That boss of yours, Spaldoni, has got to go."

"He's a lawyer," Texie defended. "And he's the closest thing we've got to Big Boy since he was thrown in the slammer."

"But still, he doesn't have Caprice's wisdom, just half of it."

"And Big Boy relied on him and Ribs to take care of his organization while he was doing time for that shit Emil Trueheart."

Before she could elaborate, Duke and Sugar rushed into the room with the knifes. She turned to face them.

"Got me anything special, like a certain disruptor?"

"Even better."

Duke held out the three knifes, causing Texie to frown.

"Graphene blades?"

"I thought you would like them, maybe they could be useful," Sugar stated.

Texie's right hand took the graphene kitchen knife from Duke's hands and studied them carefully for what seemed like thirty minutes.

"I suppose if they are worthy for the kill, then I'll just have to put them in for safekeeping."

And she did, into the safe.

That morning, at the Lucky Cat Café, Hiro, Baymax, Aunt Cass and Sora watched Alistair Krei being interviewed by Wendy Wichel outside the alleyway.

"Nobody steals from Alistair Krei and gets away with it."

His eyes peered toward Detective Tracy leading a grim Momakase away from behind into his unmarked Crown Victoria.

"And nobody tells Alistair Krei how much soy sauce to use."

Upon seeing her mugshot, from both a front and profile view, Aunt Cass went back to scrubbing a wooden square table with a grey towel that was a foot long in size.

"Wow, can you even believe that that woman was an arch-criminal."

"Which is why," Sora began to state. "That Hiro and I don't want you going on any more dangerous treks."

Hiro conveyed his thoughts in a more positive tone.

"But you managed to stand up to her. Sometimes, I forget how amazing you are, not only as an aunt, but a mother as well."

Aunt Cass' heart melted. With a smile that looked like she was about to burst into tears, she hugged Hiro into a tight embrace.

"Thank you," she whispered into his left ear.

Her ears heard the door opening, and she saw Bolton Gramercy standing there, looking very apologetic. Aunt Cass released her grip on Hiro and asked.

"What brings you here?"

"First of all, I want to apologize for my atrocious behavior."

"Thank you, I really appreciate it."

"I was also wondering if you could give me my Nana's knifes back."

"Certainly."

She brought him to a cabinet locked in the kitchen and when Cass turned on the light, he was amazed at the sight of all sorts of knifes with different shapes and colors of the hilts. At least a total of one hundred and sixty-eight on shelves of steels. A set of twelve adorned the opposite wall in front of the doorway.

"So, which ones are your nana's?"

His eyes scanned the left side of the cabinet, he could easily see that familiar brown guard along with the other shapes that were carefully placed in an organized fashion.

"Those."

He pointed his right index finger to the far-left shelf in the middle.

Once Bolton Gramercy had reclaimed Nana's knives, he knew for an absolute certainty that he would think twice before going against a simple café owner ever again.


	6. Muirahara Woods

The man known as "Horatio Peppers" was a black haired Caucasian male of 35 years who worked for the traditionalist mobster Wormy Marrons. Although Wormy was a volatile and ruthless man who had a squiggly face that was wrinkled from an overuse of Botox that contrasted with his romantically seductive voice, he had an easy tolerance of petty thieves like Peppers. Wormy had his own close encounter with Dick Tracy just three years ago when he and Tess were on their honeymoon to the Winter-Sun Mountain Resort upstate. He and his wife had been hiding in a farmhouse on the way there after murdering one of their unneeded assets, taking a suitcase containing a blood-stained carpet that the body had died in. Somehow, Tracy had mistaken the suitcase left outside for his while they were snowed in and discovered the rug once they had arrived at the hotel. Despite Tracy reclaiming his suitcase and putting out an investigation for the carpet's owner, Wormy had managed to get away out of his field of vision…free.

But the more crimes he had committed, the more it brought back Tracy's attention…and the attention of Big Hero 6. Some nights later after three years, he sent Horatio to embezzle a bundle of money from his boss's office at the laundromat. But his employer, a large Texan who made a small fortune in laundromats, discovered the theft too soon when he was halfway out the door. Tracy put out an APB while Chief Patton notified Sora and Big Hero 6 effective immediately.

They chased Peppers down to the Financial District, before making a quick getaway into the alleyway by Taverna Aventine. No matter how fast he went, the team seemed to be one step ahead of him. It was Baymax who saved the day in the end, by stopping him in middle of the alleyway while Sora, armed with the Kingdom Key, prevented him from making a U-turn. The other members of the team joined the chase by flanking Sora left to right and Tracy's voice could be heard all the way from the edge of the alleyway, shouting into his megaphone.

"This is Detective Dick Tracy! I've got a Tommy gun in my hand and it's in a barking mood!"

Fortunately on Pepper's part, not a single bullet was fired that night. Lizz and Groovy Grove locked him up in the backseat of the Crown Victoria while Tracy and Sora discussed matters with the team.

"Even without the Shadow's help from time to time, superhero business has been getting too easy."

Sora nodded at Hiro's words.

"I agree. Maybe it's best if I left you to your own devices."

"But we love having you here, Sora!" Fred whined maturely. "You're like a second Tadashi to us! Hell, even I bought tickets for a re-release of _Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice!_ "

His right hand produced five purple tickets, three of them hidden from behind the first fan row. Go-Go could only shake her head no.

"That movie may be a classic now, but it sucked when it was first released. So much that fans started buying that Batman-Superman animated movie from '96 or thereabouts out of pure nostalgia."

"Nostalgia can blind you sometimes," Fred frowned. "You gotta look forward to the future!"

"Says the one who buys tickets for an almost thirty-year-old movie," Wasabi crossed his arms. "But I suppose I could a classic movie night every once in a while, especially when Tadashi took us the movies when he first started working at the college."

"I will deflate so that no one throws popcorn at my head."

Baymax lifted his left index finger upwards as his own way of saying yes. But Go-Go still had her doubts on the legacy of the critically panned crossover.

"I think I'll pass. After all, I did say it was bad and I've got more…personal issues to deal with."

Before Baymax could ask "what kind of personal issues?" Go-Go leaned forwards like Barry Allen, aka the Flash and zoomed off into the dark night. The rest of her friends looked at each other, as Go-Go's personal issues, most of which had been resolved after Tadashi's murder, was pretty new to them. _Alien_ to them, if you can call it that way. Even Hiro was confused, especially since he didn't know Go-Go as much as his brother did.

"What's the matter with her."

"Go-Go. Gone-gone."

Wasabi's tone was mournful and Honey was just about as down as his, but only marginal.

"She goes off on her own sometimes. Not even Tadashi knew where she liked to go."

"Or did he?"

Fred sounded suspicious, but Tracy quelled his thoughts as though meaning to say.

"I'm the detective around here and whatever your friend is up to, it had better not be with Flattop Jones' gang."

That following morning in the Lucky Cat Café, Hiro and the others met around the usual round table. For breakfast, they had the usual smiley yolk eggs with sausage arms and bacon legs. Fred could not help but smolder his with ketchup, the results resembling a gory shoot-out. Hiro could care less at the moment, his eyes fixed on the spare mahogany chair where Go-Go was to sit.

"Is anybody gonna ask me where Go-Go…goes off too?"

He tried to make his words sound more practical than cheesy.

"Nope," Wasabi shook his head.

Honey with her mouth full of bacon, spoke while her cheeks remained as puffy as the Lady in the Radiator.

"It really none of our business, Tadashi and rest of us understood this."

Hiro's eyes turned to Fred, trying to drown his mouth with ketchup like the peculiar dumbo that he was.

"Are you dying to know, Fred?"

"Yeah, but can we do? Follow her?"

Hiro smiled like a little Antichrist, yet Detective Tracy, who was also in the café, having pancakes at a square table two feet away from them.

"Not without the help of a proper lawman, of course."

"I tend to disagree," Wasabi added, putting his right hand on his heart. "You have to think about her personal boundaries."

Baymax shared his thoughts from the back of his artificial intelligence and Tadashi's encoded DNA, lifting his left index finger to the ceiling as he always did.

"Setting personal boundaries is one key of maintaining an interpersonal relationship."

Finishing his breakfast, Fred stated.

"You know what? You guys are right."

Then his eyes looked in Hiro's, then Sora's, and finally, Tracy's. One would have seen as an exchange between homosexuals, but a more intelligent suggestion would have definitely concluded that there still interested in following Go-Go to her unknown whereabouts.

"Okay! Good breakfast! Gotta go!"

As soon as Fred had said this, he and Hiro took off for the door. Four seconds later, Baymax and Sora followed with Tracy on their tail. Baymax's instincts, coupled with Tadashi's DNA influencing his programming, urged his body to follow them, his promise to watch over Hiro being activated to comprehend his own nature.

"I'm not sure if my Crown Victoria will be able to fit all four of you," Tracy had to confess. "So I think we should take the bus if Leiko travels by it."

"Or better yet, I'll just call Heathcliff and we'll tail her in the limo."

He did just that, and twenty-five minutes later, they were McAllister Street.

"See anything?"

Hiro's eyes, with the bottom half of his face obscured by the left-hand side window that went all the way down to below his eyelashes, laid his sights on Go-Go's tenant.

"Nothing yet."

Fred's limousine, which was a Lincoln, was equipped with a jacuzzi. The eccentric Mr. Lee had added it for the purpose of long road trips as well as partying. Even so, such water would allow his skin to be more wrinkled that what it already was.

"Then I have time. Heathcliff, bubble me."

Heathcliff corresponded to the order faster than a computer and the bubbles came to the surface in great multitudes. Fred, still wearing his beanie, but forsaken his clothes for an orange vest and some mint green trousers, found it to be entirely relaxing. But as the aroma of the hot water began to steam up the windows, Tracy asked.

"Is it really necessary?"

"I can get bored sometimes."

He ducked under the surface, Baymax, his stature now resembling a hunchback's with the way his back was curled and pressed against the roof of the limo, watched the bubbles popping each second. Hiro and Sora were incredulous at this lackadaisical decision.

"Tracy's right, Fred, we are supposed to be watching, not bubbling it out in a jacuzzi."

"Hot tubs can be breeding grounds for different types of bacteria," Baymax chimed in. "Specifically, _Pseudomonas Aeruginosa._ "

He placed his left index finger on his chest which displayed an article of the bacteria in question. To the right of the text, were seven sickly green dashes in near curling formations with a close up of the far left individual in a magnified circle on a turquoise background.

Fred somehow managed to hear this and he surfaced with all the air held in his cheeks being compressed down his throat. He looked at the read-out morbidly.

"What?"

The music of Junkie XL on the speakers followed, speckling the bubbles into non-existence from the force of their volume. As soon as the first song on the playlist reached it's climax, Go-Go was walking out of her door and approaching her black and purple motorbike with a black helmet under her right arm. Hiro, seeing this, alerted his fellow passengers.

"There she is!"

Go-Go placed the helmet on and rose her right leg above the seat of the bike to balance her body evenly. Then her right hand thrusted the engine and she was shooting off from the sidewalk to the street. Fred stepped out of the jacuzzi and prepared to change into his casual outfit, ordering.

"Heathcliff, follow that motorcycle!"

Go-Go's motorcycle took a hard, sharp left down Turk Street. With screeching tires, the limousine followed, then proceeded carefully as Heathcliff was not willing to get onto Dick Tracy's bad side. The slow chase took them to a red light at the intersection of Turk and Taylor streets, with the limo stopping on the left-hand side of the motorcycle. Baymax, despite his crouched position, could see Go-Go just about a foot or two away from his vantage point. It would be considered rude not to say hello, and with his polite instincts kicking in, he voiced.

"I will say hello."

His right index finger reached forwards, ready to press down the window button. But Hiro's right hand grabbed his left elbow and hauled it back.

"No, Baymax," the boy genius reprimanded. "We're supposed to be sneaky. If Go-Go sees us, she'll probably turn back."

Luckily the closed window muffled any chance of Go-Go hearing them, combined with the motor of her engine running. In an instant, the light turned green and off she sped. So did the limo, but until she was at least fifteen away from them.

The slow-paced chase took them to the iconic Golden Gate bridge, where o the other side stood Sausalito in Marin County, followed by miles of nature hidden by tall pine trees that pruned and daylighted since the day were within exposure of the sun's rays.

"Miss Tanaka's motorcycle appears to be leaving the city."

Hiro grew worried.

"Tadashi and I never left the city before."

But this came out of his mouth as nothing more than a mutter.

Louder, he added.

"Where do you think she is going?"

"Could be a park with all those trees around," Sora noted.

"Apparently," Fred gave them the news. "Muirahara Woods."

And he noted this on a two foot by ten-foot section of a pine tree having been sawed off. On it were the words "Muirahara Woods National Monument" looking as though they had been written by a knife that was later modified to look less of something of a poster for a horror film.

The limo stopped by the rear of the motorbike, which was parked next to a waist high gate made of logs. Twenty feet away from it was a set of grey stairs leading to a red pagoda. The sun above them, was neatly hidden by the trees with only a few rays of sunshine sneaking inside.

Hiro took one long look at the faded yellow beauty, and his mind collapsed with instant negativity, forcing him to stick his tongue out for a split second.

"Why in the fuck would she come to this goddamn trash? Doesn't she even realize how I am not a big nature person?"

Sora crossed his arms, surprised at how while science was indeed connected to nature, Hiro did not seem fond of it for obvious reasons. But still, he asked.

"Was Tadashi much of a nature person?"

"Maybe, but the only nature I allowed myself to be subjected to was Buena Vista Park. We would race down the trail from Mike's Diner back to our house. But why would Go-Go even come here?"

The screen on Baymax's chest showed a river with a nineteen-foot log lying between the bank and a set of four grey rocks.

"Muirahara Woods is an ideal place to learn about nature firsthand. It is home to many types of plants and animals."

Six additional screens covered the image; on the right was a grey owl on the top and a squirrel on the bottom, in the middle was a deer on the top and a moose on the bottom and on the left was the American Bald Eagle above a woodpecker.

Fred's tone went dramatic.

"It is also the home of the Hibagon!"

Hiro rose his eyebrows, displaying an appropriate mixture of fear and confusion.

"What's a Hibagon?"

Fred narrowed his eyes, turning his posterior into a wicked ambience.

"A mysterious werewolf-like creature who roams the night, said to be nine feet tall and his wild mane is chocolatey brown. His feet are also the size of a foot-long sandwich."

Sora saw nothing unusual of the matter.

"What's so unique about that?"

"It's pretty picturesque. Not to mention distorted. And speaking of pictures, some poor traditionalist got a picture of it once."

What came up on Baymax's chest screen was a monochrome image of the woods, bleak and in despair behind the perfectly silhouetted figure of the Hibagon. In spite of the silhouette perfectly matching the description of Fred's urban myth, Hiro had his doubts.

"That could be anything. Like a bear, or even a wolf."

"Or a wolf attacking a bear from his head since the bear's fur doesn't look that hairy," Sora shared his own critique.

"Or just some feral man who got lost."

Tracy's words dealt in some form of foreshadowing that would only prove to be an accurate guess…or not.

"Can we just focus on Go-Go?"

Hiro's slightly annoyed tone caught the attention of his peers.

"Okay," Fred sighed. "And maybe, just _maybe_ along the way, we'll run into that chocolatey haired bastard. Heathcliff, watch the car!"

The responsible butler was soon about to break down his entire posterior as a man of class and dress. Perhaps he could he have some fun to himself out of his master's eyes.

Go-Go walked with the slow, gentle rhythm of nature that surrounded her in a pale green and yellow glow, the light reflecting off of the chlorophyll of the leaves and bushes that had grown all around in past sixty years, and possibly even a lot earlier. Hiro, Sora, Fred, Baymax and Tracy, looked from the two opposing branches of an oak tree. A family of Southern Japanifornia bees which were likely to become an endangered species swarmed around Hiro's head, hoping he wouldn't hurt their hive, but Hiro didn't understand "Buzz" and both of his hands swung at them, causing him to fall back.

"Look at all those bees!" Fred was amazed.

Tracy, who was careful not to go near them, noticed something else.

"They seem to be forming the letter 'C'."

And they did so, but Fred assumed it was a "G" while Baymax brought a more grounded answer to the both of them.

"That's swarm in order to fulfill their biological imperative to reproduce."

Hiro thought it was an allegory for consummating and his mind turned into the green of disgust.

"That information was very unnecessary, Baymax!"

The ever-sympathetic Sora opened his right hand, summoning the Kingdom Key.

"I'll take care of them for you, Hiro. STOP!"

The bees froze in place, and Sora, making sure that Hiro was not affected by the spell as well, shook his right leg. The boy genius nervously tittered four feet away from the time-displaced swarm and Fred tried to consolidate his frightened emotions.

"Hiro, Hiro, Hiro. Can't you even learn to appreciate the great outdoors?"

"Tadashi and I were both city guys, so that's what I prefer to be."

"Well, you can't live in your brother's shadow forever," Sora replied casually. "So you might as well try to grow into your own separate person. Haven't you and…you-know-who, ever gone camping before?"

Hiro shook his head.

"My life is pretty sheltered, Tadashi, Aunt Cass and I have never seen the outside world beyond San Fransokyo in my entire life so far. I never cared about the world. Just inventing stuff with…you-know-who."

"Well, I've been to camp and it was the best!" Fred gesticulated dramatically. "I learned how to make lanyards, fires out of dried grass, and even how to navigate through the woods."

"I happened to have had done the same thing when I was your age," Detective Tracy said. "But I'd think we'd better keep up with Miss Tanaka."

"But we can't get too close," Hiro warned. "Go-Go might see us."

"Roger that," Fred remembered himself. "Operation: Follow Go-Go is a go."

His eyes carefully studied Hiro's forehead, then went into a shock that made his heart skip a beat. His following reply was a slow one.

"Except for the fact that there is a really big bug on your face."

Sora took a careful look at it.

"Actually, it's more like hanging from the front lock of your hair."

Well, wherever it was, his face or his hair, his eyes pointed up the dark black beetle that brought so much fear into his heart. It fluttered it's wings, preparing to take off, should Hiro scream at the top of his lungs and break their cover. Baymax was of no help other than his actions of just staring his camera eyes onto the beetle.

"Scanning."

The readout appeared on his screen with the name in black. Provided with information under it.

"Phanaeus Vindex. Also known as the dung beetle or rainbow scarab. It is not poisonous."

"Whatever," Hiro was on the precipice of screaming. "Just get it off."

Fred swung his right hand at the scarab and slapped Hiro's left cheek. The beetle flew off just one split-second away from being killed and flew off to safety while Hiro landed on the ground. Hard.

"Sorry about that little guy," Fred apologized. "But at least I didn't give you a bloody nose."

Hiro got up and motioned his body forwards toward Go-Go's direction. If she was out of sight, they could at least follow the footprints she left behind in the sand.

From the bushes of a 20-foot high treetop, Fred had climbed all the way up to see…

"Hiro, you had better come up here!"

With both hands, Baymax lifted Hiro by the waist. He managed to gain his feet onto the branches and what he saw was nothing of a sight that was odd to the both of them.

Go-Go was sitting crisscrossed on a 14-foot rock of white, but not as white as an iceberg, flanked by a smaller one on the right and another on the left that was larger by some twenty inches. The pathway leading onto the round flat stone was a twenty-foot bark sprawled on its side. From their vantage point, they could see that she was either reading a novelette or drawing in a notebook (Go-Go was left-handed.)

Sora, watching from below, asked as he cupped his hands to his mouth.

"What do you see?"

His view, obscured by tall bushes was met with a reply by Fred.

"Now she's using binoculars."

After putting a quick two and two together, Sora asked back to them.

"Is she bird-watching?"

Hiro turned his eyes for the source seemed to irritated his ears like pebbles rolling down a skating rink and clattering into a sewer. A red-haired woodpecker was busily pecking his way into a tree to build a new nest. Then he turned back down to Sora and shouted.

"She is!"

Somehow, being unable to hear this, Go-Go studied the woodpecker with careful eyes and drew it. Her work seemed photorealistic.

Fred's attention, however, turned to a squirrel.

"Hey little buddy."

The squirrel, whose hands were locked in prayer, stared at the scary looking monster on the human's shirt and went back to his family. Below them, the river seemed to be rapid and it was increasing a faster pace, but it always seemed to be that way.

But Fred's eyes did not lie on the river below, but the yellow eyes peering outward from the other side, amongst the darkness of trees that had grown all around. His eyes froze along with the rest of his face into an expression of terror.

"The Hibagon…!"

Bad luck seemed to have influenced the two young men on that day, for the weight of the old branch could not hold them anymore and snapped from its roots, bringing the duo down into the river. And not ever Go-Go's ears were that strong enough to hear a single splash due to the half quarter mile distance. The boy flailed about as Hiro tried to think about the time he and Tadashi went to the beach and Baymax, seeing their distress, dove in head-first. Sora rushed toward them as well, but he felt the sudden jerk of Tracy's right hand pulling him back.

"No need to do that," the detective told the Keyblader. "We'll follow them downstream."

With a silent nod of anxiety, Sora followed Tracy down the left-hand side of the river. From there they could see Baymax gripping the boys with careful arms, Hiro in his right and Fred in his left. Sora drew the concentration of his eyes from the ground before him to Hiro struggling to get onto Baymax's back. Perhaps some of Tadashi's spirit was influencing Sora, as his soul filled with anxiety over the boy he had known for a mere year.

Up ahead was a waterfall of a size that Sora was uncertain of. The loud noise of running water was clear to them as well. From his vantage point, Sora could hear Baymax mentioning radishes. Why on this world would he be mentioning radishes at a time like this?

Fortunately, the waterfall wasn't that huge. But it still released a few screams from both of the boys as they went down. All three surfaced again and upon noticing the sight of another uncertainly sized waterfall, Fred shouted.

"Hiro, grab onto that Keyblade!"

Sora had aimed the teeth of the Kingdom Key towards Hiro's hands, who grabbed it while Fred held onto his waist, and Baymax onto Fred's shoes. With Tracy's help, his yellow-clad arms wrapped around Sora's jacket, they tugged the party of three onto the bank, soaking wet and up to their waists in river water after letting go, crawling on slow hands and knees.

"How much water got into you?" Sora asked in a unique way of concerning their safety.

"Probably a lot of it," Hiro moaned, spitting out a squirt of blue.

His mind was so dazed by the amount of water thrown into his lungs and the mileage it had taken to get them there, he just had to ask.

"Where are we?"

Ignoring the water stained in his Samsung Galaxy, Fred made the attempt, saying out loud.

"I'll call Heathcliff."

What came next in his right ear was static, and sparks followed by a couple of beeps.

"Phone's not working, the water must have damaged it."

Tracy turned to Fred, repeatedly clicking the buttons on his watch.

"Funny you should mention that; my two-way wrist radio doesn't seem to be working either and it's not even waterlogged."

Hiro stared at the comedic sight of Baymax, staring at a very thin pine tree that was two times his size. His right index finger was pointed upwards, greeting in a friendly manner that started to, for lack of a better word, echo.

"Hello-lo-lo! I am Baymax."

"How is it possible for Baymax to be talking to a tree?" Fred asked rapidly. "Didn't Tadashi design him to be waterproof or something?"

"He did."

Hiro reflected back to the time he and the team nearly drowned in the bay river after escaping Yokai and Big Boy's forces. Baymax had brought them to the surface just fine before they had run out of oxygen and there seemed to be no damage whatsoever inflicted in his internal circuitry. The skin was watertight in the same way a balloon is when underwater, unless it was untied and allowed the water to flow into it. But still, Hiro tried to ensure extra measures, he walked up to Baymax, asking.

"How's it going, buddy?"

Hearing no response, he peered his eyes into the skeleton.

"No wet circuits. You appear to be normal, so what's wrong?"

At last, he got his reply.

"Ona scale of one-one-one to ten-ten, how would you rate your pineapple?"

Baymax's dictionary expanded beyond medical procedures, but whatever problems he seemed to have, it seemed to stop before the right word he was thinking of. Hiro seemed to be undaunted by this and tried to reassure the robot.

"I'd think we'd better get you home."

But Baymax held up his palms to reveal two glowing blue circles; his defibrillators.

"Clear!"

"Baymax, stop!"

The robot was less than three away from diving them into Fred's chest. Purple sparks of electricity that were easily missable swarmed his head in half-a-second.

"Stick out your tongue and say, 'ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh….'"

Holding the last word down in a computerized operatic note, Hiro, Tracy, Sora and Fred stared at the malfunctioning robot and Hiro broke the silence when he suddenly realized that his memory of finding the way back had slipped away from him.

"What do we do?" he panicked to Fred without trying to sound genuine. "We're in the middle of nowhere!"

"Oh calm down, Hiro, I'll bet Heathcliff is looking for us right now."

Sora, in a rare moment of pessimism, crossed his arms and muttered.

"Or not."

Sora was right. Heathcliff couldn't care less as he basking in the water of the jacuzzi as the music of Three Days Grace blasted through the speakers. But Hiro had no idea what a butler would do in a situation like this, all he perceived of them with grace, refinery and aristocratic manners.

"How would Heathcliff even find us? We're miles downriver from where we started! Nobody knows where we are…"

Fred saw the poor boy's distress and had an idea.

"Maybe Go-Go saw us falling in!"

"Yeah!" Hiro beamed, trying not to stutter. "She can help us!"

His sanity was starting to break with that little line of his and as Baymax walked away to the left, Sora watched Hiro and Fred calling her name one second after the other and before he could engage himself into his own cries for help, Tracy's right hand tugged on his jacket.

"We'll just head back upstream," Tracy said unevenly.

"Good idea," Sora agreed. "But what about them?"

He aimed his left thumb back to the two boys and Tracy, without turning his head back, reassured him.

"They'll be safe until after we've returned with help. A good camper knows that if you get lost, just hug a tree and blow a whistle."

"How very puerile," Sora said to himself. "But very helpful."

He took one last look at Hiro and Fred calling in vain and disappeared into the woods with Tracy, and neither one of them knew where they had gone after their voices started to grow sore.

At the Ito Ishioka Robotics Lab, Honey and Wasabi were spending the afternoon in the usual lab, Honey reading _The Fault in Our Stars_ and Wasabi adjusting toolset by adding an oil can and a tea cup to the equation. By surprise, Go-Go appeared through the door, greeting them casually.

"Hey guys."

While wiping the tea cup with a monogramed handkerchief of red and white in his right hand, Wasabi's head turned over his left shoulder to meet her, as did Honey, whose eyes went directly from her novel to her roommate.

"You're in a good mood, which is surprising given that Hiro and Fred went with Tracy and Sora to go after you."

Go-Go knew what Wasabi had said, but she needed extra confirmation. She placed her fists on her hips and craned her neck forward, asking.

"They did _what?_ "

Honey, placing the novelette down, gave Go-Go a stoic stare that matched hers.

"We told them about your secret outings. Tracy allegedly assumed you were hanging out with Flattop's gang."

"I already did…once…a long while back, like, two or four years ago."

A three second pause.

"And they followed me? I did not see them at all."

"We think so," hummed Honey. "But since they've been gone all day, that must count for something."

Wasabi went over to the computer.

"I'll just locate their phones."

He typed in the names, followed by a casually morbid reply of.

"They're dead."

The girls gasped and Honey Lemon placed her hands over her mouth in shock.

Dios mio, _first Tadashi and now Hiro and Fred? Where have you gone, Lady Justice?_

Wasabi immediately corrected them, noticing their distress.

"I mean their phones are dead."

Go-Go leaned in.

"Try 'Last Known Location'."

She turned over to her roommate.

"Honey, you might want to call Donald and Goofy. We're going to need some extra help."

After typing in the last known location, two red dots, those being Hiro and Fred appeared by a river on a night vision green map with the name in a black bold font spanning across the creek.

"Muirahara Woods? Why would they—?"

He paused, and Wasabi turned his brown eyes over to the unsuspecting Go-Go.

"Oooh, so that's where you go."

"And…?"

Honey laid her right hand on Wasabi's left shoulder, displaying the concern of an archetypical mother.

"And it's getting dark. I'd better call Donald and Goofy."

And so she did. The two were still lounging around in the Lucky Cat and when they heard the news, Goofy and Donald rushed right over to the school via Gummi Ship.

The sky above Muirahara Woods had turned orange then red as the sky of Mars when the sun slipped below the trees. A great fear of darkness (the physical, lighting, medium type) was soon settling in perfect synchronization with the sun in the hearts of almost every visitor who were either trespassers or natives. Sora and Tracy, still walking their way up the stream, could find no sign of any footprints which lead them back to the way they came as the ground wasn't soft enough. Even if there were, gentle gusts of wind, or strong ones, would have remolded man's feet back to the way it had originally looked, before man placed his foot in it. Tracy continued walking up the northern part of the woods as Sora came up to his left side and asked.

"Are you absolutely certain that Hiro, Baymax and Fred will stay where they are? It's not like they have any whistles. And I'm not sure which tree they should hug other than one of the ones we left them at."

"Then they can shout," Tracy replied, not taking his eyes off the woods ahead. "At least that comes in handy as opposed to a whistle."

At the same Hiro and Fred were using their voices, to call for Baymax.

"Baymax! Where are you buddy?!"

Losing any part of his brother entirely was enough to break his nerves and his heart. That same fear was coming back and the louder his heart began to beat, the closer he was to another period of depression. Fred joined in with a common "Baymax! Come out, come out, wherever you are!" to no response. The robot had completely forgotten his responsibilities due to that infraction. Another fear came to his mind.

"What if the Hibagon got him?"

And what came next sounded like a trash can being knocked over. Hiro, out of fear, asked rapidly.

"Whatwasthat?"

"Maybe it is the Hibagon," Fred's reply was slow.

"Or Baymax, Sora and Tracy," Hiro went into a nervous tone, trying to sound cheery.

The rustling of a bush that was ten feet away from them grew loud, followed by four footsteps. Out from the bush came a black nose, followed by a mouth and black beady eyes. A brown furred grizzly bear was cold and angry over the recent conditions of weather that had befallen upon the forest and the trespassers that it had sensed. Hiro took five steps back as Fred tried hard not to panic.

"I…really…hate…this…fucking…place."

He prayed as he and Fred screamed.

 _Tadashi, help me!_

His prayers were answered immediately, for a brown-haired man wielding a staff of balsa wood with two prongs on the top, who somersaulted into the air by eighteen feet. Hiro could see the details of the man's clothing more carefully: brown vest, cream T-shirt with some hint of yellow, dull green armbands on each wrist, light brown trousers held by a very natural belt of chocolate brown color and dark brown boots securely held by light grey drawstrings. The man had a Georgian accent, especially with the way he said.

"Have at thee, bear. You've got every right to attack these fools, but I have every right to defend them! So it's your choice, damn it."

The bear just simply rose on his (or her's) hind legs and roared at the top of the lungs, which did not impress Fred.

"You can't just give it a choice."

The man simply walked behind them. Hiro could also see that he was completely bearded at a length of twenty-five inches with the back of his hair wrapped in a pony tail. He whispered to the two.

"Hold still."

Standing with his right foot on Fred's left shoulder and his left on Hiro's right, the man stood with the staff in both hands and glared at the bear.

"You must intimidate the bear, it is the only way."

In spite of the pain that was weighing his shoulder down, Hiro could see the man shaking his head four times over until his mane looked wild, resembling a cross between either a bear or a mountain lion. With wide eyes, the man gave a wild roar while gritting his teeth. Somehow, the bear understood him, got back on all fours and turned left to safety. The man saw a nearby overhead branch that was thin enough for him to bend with the staff and he launched himself upward and behind a round grey rock, somersaulting as he shouted.

"You never saw me!"

But Fred curious.

"Who is he?"

"I'll ask him."

Hiro stepped forward by two feet. He tried to sound very honorable without stuttering, as is the case with those of Japanese descent.

"Please, sir! We're lost and none of our gear works!"

With a rustle, the man came from behind, riding on a large brown moose, it's horns resembling flames that had reached the topmost point.

"Are you asking Bessie or me?"

The man's reply urged Hiro to point his right index finger to the man, confused.

"Is Bessie your…moose?"

He was unsure of this, but the answer seemed to be definitive.

"It's obviously the moose," Fred muttered rapidly.

"It ain't no moose, ya shitbrain," the man's tone sounded like a profane hillbilly. "It's the bear's name."

"Ooooh."

The boys said this unison.

"And she's behind ya."

He pointed his left index finger, causing the two to turn counterclockwise at the approaching Bessie, running towards them on all fours with a hungry mouth. Hiro now wished that Sora and Tracy, who were obviously armed, were right by their side for protection. He and Fred quickly jumped onto the back of the moose, who immediately set off into safer pastures.

The moon was rising above the woods when Hiro, Fred, the man and the moose entered a clearing. What they had seen next, caused Fred to make a genuine "Wow!"

Sitting 47 feet above the bark of an elm tree was a tree house, with one entryway being a spiral of 39 steps carved from the shavings of a bark. It looked rectangular in shape and appeared to be fairly wide, some parts hidden by the leaves of trees all grouped together. There was even a light emitting from the treehouse, but judging from the power of the light's glow, it was that of flame rather than electricity. Hiro, doubtful at first, curiously asked the man.

"This…is your house?"

"Wasn't mind to begin with."

The man said this before stepping down on the moose's right, causing Fred to ask.

"So who lives here?"

"I do," The man raised his left palm twenty-five inches away from him, panning it to the right. "But it belongs to the woods. I just mind it. You want to take a look up and see?"

Fred and Hiro stared at each other for three seconds. The turned back, following him onto a board made of elm wood.

"Actually, we were hoping to— _maa nante koto nanda!_ "

The board jolted that began to levitate on an even level. It creaked as the pulleys turned while the man explained.

"I don't get to show off of my abode. It's sort of a downside to the…hermit life style."

When they reached the top, the board fitted perfectly with the rectangular opening, giving Hiro and Fred a clear view of the interior. Fred showed some admiration for the balsa wood window frames, the pots and pans made of some natural materials, the logs that were chopped in half over by the right side and the walls and ceilings that seemed to be the same shade of brown. He also showed a strange admiration of the floor at the very moment he stepped in.

"Oh. My. God! Look at these original hardwood floors!"

Hiro cared less about the unique décor of the treehouse and cared more about his other friends.

"Fred, we have to focus on finding Tracy, Sora and Baymax!"

"I know, but this treehouse is so cool!"

He walked off, leaving Hiro with clenched fists and a nasty scowl.

"You're pissing me off, Fred. Don't you have any concern?"

"They'll be fine!"

To Fred, he was sincere. To Hiro, it was a caustic reply. But then, his brain gave him the intelligence he needed. It also preserved his civilized, conditioned state.

"Maybe I can spot them from up here," he said to himself in a low voice.

The man held a jar of fireflies in his left hand, he used his right hand to open up the forest green cap and the liberated occupants flew their way into the lantern. Hiro looked from the right-hand side widow to see the trees lit by a cast of blue from the light of the moon. As he scanned the horizon, Fred noticed a calendar sized portfolio with a similar looking man whose hair was short, laid back and clean shaven. His eyes widened at the name written in blood red.

"Ned Ludd the real estate king? The one who went batshit and disappeared?"

He simulated this by flapping his arms childishly as Hiro walked up. The man, now identified as Ned Ludd, seemed to have taken a great offensive at this by sneering his eagle eyes to Fred, speaking to him in a violent undertone.

"Any more of that perception and I'll have your lungs for dinner."

Hiro seemed to have been familiar with this man by name rather than reputation, but it was his threat that made him cringe and made Fred stop flapping like an autistic child. But it perhaps it was something else that made him stop, like an epiphany.

"Ooooooh, this is _you_."

He pointed his left thumb at the picture.

"Don't bother me now," Ned replied as he set the staff down and opened another canister of fireflies. They flew into the lantern, creating a glow that was as strong as a regular light. Hiro seemed mesmerized by the brightness of the fireflies, imagining them as street lights floating and circling around the harbor in a grand tour of the city.

Then, Ned placed his face behind the jar, delivering a creepy grin.

"AndpeoplethinkI'm…crazy. But after what happened to me, see…staying here was the only sane thing to do."

He could remember a, slightly younger, and less hairier self, looking over the grand sight of the woods with a pair of binoculars.

"I was younger, full of firin', obsessed with getting mine. I had big damn plans for this here woods…"

"Sorry to interrupt," Hiro looked concerned. "But we're looking for our friends…"

"CAN'T YOU SEE I'M HOLDIN' THE GODDAMNN STORY SNAKE?!"

A yellow-green python was wrapped against his upper left forearm, it shared the same glare as he did.

"It's my turn to talk."

Ned's voice went calm and it showed how he was as civil as the boys of _Lord of the Flies_ , when they had to use a conch to talk. Each boy who had his own turn to talk would use the conch as a way of representing order…which would lead to chaotic results.

"Now as I was sayin'…I had big plans for Muirahara…BY TEARIN' IT ALL DOWN TO MAKE ROOM FOR CONDOS! Until the night of May 16th, when came to me in the form of a big-ass crater. I was about to make a turn in my new Subraru when _somethin'_ caused the damn brakes to malfunction and I was a goner…almost…until I saw that meteorite."

Hiro had little patience.

"Great story be need to fin—"

Before he could complete the word "find", the python hissed over his right hand, threatening to poison him.

"I was _SAVED_ by nature! It shut off the car just a few inches away from falling into a manmade grave. And by manmade, I mean the car would my grave if I didn't survive. Well, anyway, that moment gave the epiphany I needed: I was not meant to cut down the woods. No…I was meant to live in a woods away from the big city. Away from all technological things that would bring humanity to it's death…with Bessie."

"You mean the bear?" Fred was confused.

With nothing else to say, Ned used the staff in his left hand to shove Fred aside and walked over to a dusty red velvet curtain. He used the same hand to shove it aside and there, lying on a nest of straw, before three tree roots with the name "Bessie" written in black against a white board wrapped around it in brown string, was a meteorite, with a surface underneath the black circled shells that reminded Fred of Kryptonite was usually discovered in the DC Universe.

"So Bessie is the meteorite?" was all he had to ask. "Well that makes total sense."

The glare of a green glow penetrated Hiro's irises. Could it be possible that this rock of pure energy was made of the same crystal from Professor Granville's paperweight? Only by walking closer to it, would he find a possible answer. The scout's honor of keeping Big Hero 6's identities and the lack of public knowledge of what went behind the scenes forced his mind to quickly form a very convincing half-lie.

"The magnetic field from Bessie must be what killed the tech in your car…and our tech as well."

He studied the meteorite, hypnotized by the light it had created, whispering.

"Maybe that's what's bothering you, Baymax…"

His curiosity overtook his mind, his right hand reached forward, then Ned barked.

"HANDS OFF!"

Hiro took six steps back in a rapid pace as Ned held the rock, petting it with his free right hand.

"That's a good girl, Bessie."

Again, Hiro and Fred exchanged glances of worry. It appeared as with everything else in the room, Ned's methods and current lifestyle were…medieval.

In the woods Sora and Detective Tracy were walking along the bases of the tree trunks with only the light of the moon to guide their way. Tracy was careful not to bump into any of the trees that weren't touched by the moon's glow, emitting white around the base spread a white surface

"So what makes you an experienced camper Detective Tracy?"

"Well it all started long before Hiro and Tadashi were born. My brother Gordon and I took some time off from working at Dad's dog kennel to take a hiking trail here in the woods. We were quite the happy campers, telling life stories, roasting marshmallows, learning how to canoe, how to know what to do when you get lost—"

He trailed off, catching his eyes under the moonlight at the silhouette of a round object on the highest branch of a tree that very obviously did not belong there. Squinting his eyes, and as Sora came up to him, he muttered loudly.

"Now how the hell did he get up there?"

Forty-five feet above them, was Baymax, having climbed his way up to the branch and was sitting next to a brown eyes owl. It stared at the strange creature for a second before she flew off and the robot shouted back.

"Good-bye, Honey Lemon."

"Baymax!" Sora cupped his hands to the android. "Stay right where you are! I'm going to use my glider to get you down!"

He thrust his right hand holding the Kingdom Key up into the air which activated the glider, filling the natural ambience with the whine of its engine. Hopping aboard, Sora went at a ship's speed of 1 knot, ascending slowly to the branch. But as though the wind had other ideas, Sora was pushed forward into Baymax's chest, bringing the two and the glider down in a heap. He bounced off of the plushy robot once contact had been made with the ground and the robot managed to walk off with the two humans following him at a reasonable distance.

Back up in the treehouse, Hiro and Fred were served with lumps of sap into wooden cups shaped like tulip glasses but without the stems. Hoping to not get a full taste of what would seem like a disgusting drink, Fred curiously asked.

"Have you ever seen the Hibagon?"

Ned laughed.

"You're looking at 'im."

Fred dropped his jaw.

"THE FUCK?!"

"I like to make people pretend there's some kind of monster roamin' around. Gives me a chance to be alone from all them dipshits."

Then another thought came to Fred's mind, the exact amount of time having passed since their phones went out of whack.

"Do you know what time it is, Hiro? I don't want to be the one who gets the rear end of a stick when your aunt worries about you."

"I don't know I'll have to check my phone."

Hiro pulled it out into his right hand and in spite of all the fuzz and static surrounding the phone, the time according to it was 4:00 PM.

Ned could only give it a condescending scorn.

"Technology is horseshit, boy. It's mankind's worst idea eve."

Hiro shook his head and glared at Ned with a defensive tone as the hermit loaded the sap from the tree into his cup.

"That is not true! Some technology is good. My brother Tadashi told me that whenever some of our projects didn't work. He said he would use it to help people and it does."

Ned could care less. But since he was unaware of the…unfortunate implications, he had to be callous.

"Then your brother was _blind_ , just like all the rest of them dipshits."

Hiro slammed the cup down, preparing to make a deliberate karate chop on this hermit's head before Fred's left hand dragged on his right sleeve.

"He doesn't deserve it that much."

"Helps people," Ned muttered. "Helps people, my ass."

He hovered the staff carrying the black canister over Fred's cup, asking.

"More sap?"

"No thank you."

But the words did not leave his lips when the contents were poured in. Hiro's voice was rapid enough to come up with an answer.

"Speakingofhelp…we need yours."

He nervously pointed his right index finger at Ned.

"Our friends are lost in the woods and we need you to find them."

Sipping his sap down, Ned stood up, serious and militant, then turned counterclockwise and walked to the entrance. Unsure of what to do next, Fred and Hiro exchanged glances, which was interrupted by a squeak and some five footsteps to reveal Ned, angling his upper body at a 40-degree angle.

"What the fuck you all doin' just sitting there? Let's go!"

Now understanding, Hiro and Fred got up from the floor and followed him to the lift which took them down.

Meanwhile, Baymax was leading Tracy and Sora to the river, where a 20 foot log acted as a bridge for the three of them to cross.

"If we follow Baymax," Tracy instructed quietly to Sora. "We might have a chance of getting out in part of his instincts. However, if he keeps this up for too long, we'll just have to drag him back."

"—your personal—"

Bamyax's words shifted and discombobulated along with his balance as Sora reached the bridge. His right hand grabbed Baymax just in time to prevent him from making a twenty-seven foot fall into the river. He pulled him back up with a few grunts and the robot turned counterclockwise, continuing on his way again. Baymax was certain to have seen two hornless buck drinking from the river, who rose their heads to stare up at him.

"Hello! I am Bay-Bay-Bay-Bay-Bay-Baymax!"

Sora just pushed Baymax from behind and Tracy followed after them.

Some yards away, Go-Go, Goofy, Wasabi, Donald and Honey had taken a different route into Muirahara Woods that did not go anywhere near parked limo. Go-Go held up her iPhone as high as she could go, searching for a signal, let alone any trace of her two missing boys.

After the passing of three seconds, she sighed and paced back and forth.

"I'm not picking up anything."

Wasabi was curious to ask.

"Why the woods."

Go-Go just stared at him. Honey displayed a face of bepuzzlement and Donald and goofy were leaning their upper bodies in by six inches with wide ears. At last, she sighed, delivering a speedy reply.

"I like to go bird-watching, okay?! Tadashi and I both realized we had the same interested and…he kissed me….on a night like this."

"Did you do the deed?" Honey grinned, trying not to sound envious.

"We just kissed. That and the whole forest relaxes me, makes me less violent."

Honey brought her optimism to a higher level.

"Maybe I can come with you someday."

"No," Go-Go's reply was stern and strict. "It's my sanctuary, a safe haven from all the crime that drags San Fransokyo onto it's knees."

Wasabi went over to scan the river. It was blue under the moonshine with the flow of water going smoothly along the banks and rocks of color that shimmered rainbows while submerged. One rock in particular that seemed to be in an odd, flat M-shape, caught his attention. The closer he got to the odd shape, he could see the exact details, revealing that it was not a simple jade, but that pendant Fred always wore around his neck held by a brown string. He picked it up in his right hand, summoning the others over.

"This is Fred's pendant."

"And that proves that Sora is with them," Goofy whispered to Donald.

"Obviously," Donald muttered, trying to sound patient. "But there's also the matter of Detective Tracy."

"A good detective should be able to know his way back," Honey suggested. "But if that was the case, Hiro, Fred and Sora should have been smart enough to follow them."

Then Go-Go's sharp eyes pointed to the horizon.

"Look!"

She pointed her right index finger towards a log, pointing upwards at a forty-five degree angle. The assumption that Fred dropped his pendant in the confusion only meant the worst for the party of five.

"Since Baymax isn't here, I'll just say it….oh no."

But Wasabi's imitation quite human for something that originated from a robot. But that was none to say the least for Baymax himself, who was standing in front of hive under repair by bees. A larger group of the hive, that being the local populace of the hive, had covered Baymax all around to the area of his eyes, for the sight of their movement, had apparently frightened the bees. Sora and Tracy remained under a shield of ethereal hexagons as Baymax tried to convince the swarm through his electronic stutter.

"I cannot deactivate until you say you are mortified with your hair."

"Mortified is putting it mildly," muttered Tracy from beneath the shield. "But to be accurate, mortification being associated with bees does stem from the fact that a bee's sting can be fatal."

Some bees who found no room on Baymax's engulfed body, hovered around the trees, watching the progress on the reconstruction go ahead, or found their way over to Sora's shield. Two at the most did not seem like a lethal threat, but he knew that a fast thinking spell would get them out of harm's way, without causing harm itself onto the bees. And so he did with a "Sleepga" spell, which caused the bees to drop from the hive onto the ground, squishing some of the ones that fell in a spectacular display of Baymax being returned to his former color, Tracy's left hand dragged Baymax from behind his neck collar and Sora followed after them. Both humans were intent on getting out of Muirahara alive.

Whenever Ned needed to find something, he would sniff his way towards it. He had learned this from his pet bloodhound and a number of other canines that inhabited the woods like wolves and coyotes. A lick to the ground, a smack of his bushy lips and bringing himself to his feet later, he walked on bending knees with Hiro in the middle and Fred behind him. The dog-like actions of the civilized-turned-feral man drew some curiosity into Fred who sniffed the ground with his thin nose and before he could even think about licking the ground on an inaccurate amount, he turned up to Ned, asking.

"What is it that I am supposed to be tasting?"

"Keep on your toes boy, you wouldn't wanna get eaten by some unsuspecting predator."

This made Fred stand up in a civilized way and he proceeded to tail the entourage.

Ned's right hand pushed back a bush that was turquoise under the moonbeam, his eyes inspecting a tiny branch which had nearly been cleaned off. A clear evidential sign of Baymax, Sora and Tracy's presence. With his staff pushing the bush back, the two boys could only express their relief at the sight of the trio of missing comrades: Sora and Tracy oddly watching Baymax holding an Aster Wood's Purple in his right hand, his left fingers stroking it lovingly.

"Good doggie."

"Baymax, Sora, Tracy!"

Out of all the three, Hiro ran over to his brother's healthcare nurse bot, while Fred went before Tracy and Sora.

"Well, speak of the devil, I thought you were going to stay where you were," Tracy placed his fists to his hips.

"You didn't tell us where you were going!" Fred protested.

"Then perhaps, I've overestimated your intelligence."

Hiro, hugging Baymax from his right side, didn't care if Baymax responded with "Nice kitty" while his free right hand petted and stroked Hiro's unruly hair. But such a sight nearly caused Ned to pull every last follicle of his hair out. He found his words with the volume of his voice growing at each syllable.

"Your…best…friend…is. A. ROBOT?!"

"I know," Hiro turned his head over his right shoulder to face. "But he's a good robot. My brother built and programmed him to treat the sick and injured. In short, he helps people."

Ned stomped his way over to Hiro as the intellect clutched the robot harder.

"No robot ever helps people, they have too many flaws."

Sora crossed his arms.

"Baymax makes up for all of them."

"In what way? I think I'm going to boot this little motherfucker over a cliff. That's what Bessie would want me to do."

Sora aimed the Keyblade defensively at him.

"Don't you dare!"

Fred's right hand forcefully pushed the teeth down, relaxing Sora's glare.

"Relax, I think he's just trying to scare us."

But it seemed that Ned had other ideas. His right hand grabbed a noose made of a creeper from his belt and the loop was onto Baymax's invisible neck. With no time for any formality, Baymax rapidly replied.

"Goodbye."

He was dragged onto his back through the ground. The staff held by Ned's left hand loosed a vine wrapped around a tree's branch and when Fred, Sora, Hiro and Tracy ran over, they themselves suspended…in a net that had been hidden by leaves and other rubbish that camouflaged with no exposure at all.

Hiro, while enraged by this man's turncoat behavior, was putting two and two together on his technophobia.

"Now I see…you're a Luddite!"

"You're damn right, I am. I also happened to be a descendant of Barthélemy Thimonnier. I just didn't realize his genes were within me until now."

And he said this before dragging Baymax through the bush. Hiro felt like crying over losing Tadashi again, but he did not have to wait, Sora was using the teeth of his Keyblade to saw away at the ropes. They fell on their behinds upon impact.

That was when Sora noticed the ghostly light. Fred who was turning his head around, did not see it as a ghost at first, but as a salvation of hope.

Go-Go was standing above the ledge of a rock that towered over Wasabi, Honey, Goofy and Donald.

"So do you know where in the woods we are at?"

Wasabi asked this to Honey, shivering from the autumn cold. Had she been wearing nothing at all, she would have died of hypothermia within three hours.

"Nope," was all she could say.

She was too cold to think about anything other than the freezing temperature.

The undaunted Go-Go, pierced above the rock, shine her flashlight forward.

"I have never been this far into the woods before."

"Why not?" came the sardonic reply of Wasabi. "It's sssso warm and inviting."

Then the flashlight started flicker, it switched on and off five times before the bulb popped like an old-fashioned photograph.

"That was weird."

Honey looked at her phone, some display of static electricity was surrounding it. It wasn't powerful enough to be lethal, mind you, but it did cause some small ounce of pain into her right hand.

"My phone's acting bizarre. Must be a weak signal."

"Or something else," Wasabi worried.

Then came the rustling of bushes. Perhaps Wasabi was that psychic and all five turned the source of the sound coming somewhere in the woods.

" _So this is how it ends,_ " Wasabi whispered in his Swahili. " _Death in the woods._ "

Somewhat understanding him, Go-Go rose her hands defensively.

"Wasabi, calm, the hell, down."

Who should come out of the bushes at the most appropriate time…but Sora, flanked by Detective Tracy, Hiro and Fred. The last of the four held his arms out.

"GUYS!"

Sora rushed over to hug Goofy and Donald and Hiro thought of doing same before he stopped at the girl's unimpressed glare.

"We'll have a convo and a hug later. For now, I'm just glad your alive."

Then Honey looked over the party, looking worried.

"Where's Baymax?"

"Ned Ludd got him," Sora explained.

Fred added. "The crazy wilderness real estate developer."

"Need I know more about him?" Wasabi asked, looking tired from the search.

But Fred cut any explanation short to.

"It's a long story."

Go-Go looked around.

"Which way did he go?"

Tracy pointed his left index finger northwards.

"That way behind the bush. But I think he's halfway through the forest by now. If he's smart, he probably won't leave any footprints."

"And he knows this forest like the back of his hand," added Hiro.

He sighed, expressing dismay at what would seem a permanent loss for Baymax. A loss that was permanent as death.

"Looks like we've lost."

Go-Go placed her right hand on Hiro's left shoulder.

"Try to improvise, Baymax needs you just as much as Tadashi needed you."

Hearing his name brought back the memory of his murder at the hands of Robert Callaghan, but the flame he had used to make his escape gave Hiro an idea.

"Go-Go, can you make a fire…maybe a small controllable one?"

"Okay, just don't freak out if it destroys the whole forest."

With two dry sticks and a pile of seventeen sticks to go with them, Go-Go set them up in the middle of the clearing, rubbed them together and the fire was sparked. The heat soon got to the yes of the others, including Hiro, who tried not to procrastinate by lingering on it. Fred meanwhile, kept watch from the branch of a tree, Wasabi collected more wood and so did Honey, Goofy, Tracy, Donald and Sora. Hiro informed the group.

"Ned believes that there is only the four of us and since we cannot track, we might have to alert him."

Tracy readied a drum on his signature weapon.

"Good thing I've got my Tommy gun, I could make it sound like I'm hunting some of the birds. Once he comes crying to me, I'll snap the cuffs on him and haul him away."

"Or…"

A devious smile was forming across Hiro's lips.

"We could threaten the very thing he cares about…"

He spread his hands apart, creating an imaginary widescreen panorama.

"The woods."

Hearing this caused Honey Lemon to drop her log.

" _Dios mio,_ we're not going to hurt the poor forest, are we?"

Hiro's smile of insanity relaxed itself along with his voice.

"Of course not. But Ned doesn't know that."

"What if he doesn't wanna just give up Baymax?"

Seeing Go-Go's point, Tracy readied his Tommy gun again.

"Then I say we stun the poor bastard, alternatively, fire off some warning shots, and he'll be so scared, he'll probably drop Baymax on his way."

"Or we could use sticks and pinecones as weapons," Hiro countered.

The agreement was mutual. First they loaded sap into a black pot from a nearby tree. The pot, along with other materials, were taken from Ned's treehouse. Go-Go was supplied with armor made of bark with seven sets of rope connected to each other. These ropes were used to create a twirling form of bolas, which captured Fred with ease. He fell to the ground on his chin without any sign of blood leaking out of his external layers.

Next, Hiro made a catapult out of brown bark, to which Wasabi was to use on his left forearm. The bottom was flat and it was barriered on the inside by hard walls. Creepers would be used as a sling shot to fire its contents. Wasabi demonstrated this against Goofy, who used his shield to block off the first three, and the fourth one covered his mouth while it was open.

When it was Honey's turn, Hiro added square glasses made from birchwood while the lenses were transferred from her own glasses onto theirs, certain that it would be easy to place them back once the task had been finished. The glasses were connected to a helmet of forest green bark, along with shoulder pads that had a tinge of brown. The breast pad was green, both back to front, and the rest of the barkwood pads were brown on the arms.

Fred's participation mostly consisted of digging a seven-foot hole in the ground, then covering it with sticks, as he had remembered from his previous camping experiences to trap wild animals like raccoons, but Fred had ensured that the hole was big enough for Ned to climb through. He got out using the shovel as an impromptu ladder and then added a set of sixty-seven thin sticks, covering the hole with the right amount of a convincing ruse as he needed it to be. For extra measures, he added a bush which Sora helped to pull from its roots.

Hiro readied a creeper from a tree branch which would be used as a tripwire, Sora, Donald and Goofy did their part by keeping watch, and Tracy was still cradling his Chicago typewriter with the intention of injuring the bastard to secure an easy arrest without the risk of killing him.

The fire grew higher with the figures of Big Hero 6 and its allies looming behind it. They stood ready for action, regardless of their identities being revealed, but they didn't care. Ned was too much of a hermit to know anything about them. Go-Go narrowed her eyes, prepared to face the approach of danger.

"Bring it on."

A few miles away across a large stretch of hill, Ned was doing his best climb his way, using the staff in his left hand as locomotion. His anger and determination to have Baymax destroyed was fueled by the robot's voice of informants.

"Completing comprehensive health profile, file, file…my scan indicates that you are pregnant-pregnant-pregnant."

"A mistake you can live with for your last minutes you damned robot," Ned stopped to turn back at him over his right shoulder. "Cause after I'm through with your motormouth ass, you'll be good for nothing."

Then he saw the light, a light that did not speak of the moon, but of a perceived brush fire in a clearing. Ned panicked, knowing exactly where it was.

"Oh my God! My home!"

Forgetting Baymax, Ned leaped above him and continued his way down. The robot did manage to lift his upper body thought.

"And air-resistant," was all he could say before he used his hands to untie his legs.

Looking up during the progress, he saw the sharp silhouette of a moose standing proudly before him like a great prince of the forest.

"Oh."

The moose charged toward him, clearly sensing a change of morality with it's master. Skidding to an inch before, the moose seemed like he wanted to say "I wish to help you." But all she did was blow a puff of white condensation from its nostrils. Baymax picked this up in his sensor, misinterpreting it to a section of Tadashi's algorithm when he was five years old.

"I am a choo-choo train."

The moose just used his nose to lift Baymax onto its back.

Ned came in front of a threat that was less serious than he had imagined.

"Oh…a campfire. Those dickwads need to think twice before infiltrating _my_ private property!"

With a swish of his left hand, the staff rustled away the branch hiding the creeper noose. This was followed by three more, informing the others that they had been outsmarted.

"Nice try, shitbrains, or should I say, _city boys_ to be appropriately correct?"

But Ned was quite wrong, for Fred and Hiro had been anticipating this. The younger came out from the tree on the left, while the older came out on the right. Hiro spoke up.

"Ned, all I want is my brother's robot back and then we'll leave."

He placed his right hand on his heart.

" _Sukauto no meiyo._ "

Ned's tone, went strong, serious and incredibly bleak. He had hoped to use this tone, to end the boy's sympathy for technology, once and for all.

"A robot can…never be a be a friend to you, or any other nitwit in the damned cesspool of city you hail from. Your brother's robot, is a machine, and machines, can never be trusted. Sometimes, they can turn your back on you, sometimes they can kill you just to prove they're the superior species and sometimes they can just form armies to either restraint humanity, enslave them or kill them. I know this, because Bessie told me."

Hiro shook his head and scoffed.

" _Yoi kami,_ Ned. Sounds like you've been reading _I, Robot_ one too many times."

Fred tried to support his younger friend.

"Well, Bessie told me to tell you to get Baymax back."

He leaned his head twenty inches closer to the right and whispered slowly to Hiro.

"Play…along."

"Bessie doesn't talk to strangers," Ned seethed, holding the staff in both hands to control his anger. "And as I've told you…your friend is goin' over the damn cliff."

His right hand gripped the staff, and the waving of it produced a strong gust that shed the clearing into darkness. The fire was blown away into oblivion. Hiro, now able to breathe completely with his fears gone, turned counterclockwise and ran into the bush. Fred did the same, albeit in the polar opposite turn. A quick thought informed the boy genius that they had to split up until Tracy and the others would attack him.

"Good luck."

"You too, Hiro, just fly low and don't look back."

From his field of vision, he could see Fred drifting apart from him into a bush. Hiro jumped from a six foot log and took the left hand side direction. Ned was not to far, and when he reached the log, he was swinging from the vines in silence. Hiro hid behind a nearby pine tree, breathing for his life and tried not to wonder how Aunt Cass would react if she found him lost in the woods…dead. Shaking it out of his head, he looked over his right shoulder once, then turned back to race further into the woods. Away from the insane Ned.

Fred meanwhile, was taking steady steps with his running he heard a faint whoosh. He turned counterclockwise, hoping it was the wind, but it turned be Ned, both hands gripping the vine that he was swinging from…he just stood there, unsure of what to do.

And that was when Honey Lemon stepped in with a ball of sap. Having rounded it with her own two hands, she threw it towards Ned from her right one, striking him where his abdomen was supposed to be. His own right hand gripped it, making contact with the substance and proving that he could not move it away by any more than five meters.

"What the hell is this stuff?" he asked in an outrage.

"Just a private concoction of my own," the girl replied. "I have got to remember this recipe."

She fired another from her left, which Ned immediately struck down into eighteen pieces with his staff. Then he splattered two more attempts before Fred and Honey ran off to safety.

Wasabi and Goofy prepared for the ambush, firing off the three coconuts as well as Goofy throwing his shield before Ned had successfully deflected them off with just three simple twirls: counterclockwise, clockwise and a short swoosh.

Meanwhile, under a bridge of a log…

"Baymax! _Baymax!_ "

Hiro called for his beloved brother inside the robot, but what he found in front of him was the rustling of a bush. His prayers in Japanese were silent.

" _Please don't let it be the bear again…_ "

But what he saw the moose carrying Baymax on his back. There was little time for another hug as they had other matters to deal with.

Fred's path was blocked by the sneaky Ned, who frightened the comic book lover with an insane cackle.

"Guys! HELP ME!"

Donald, armed with his mage's staff in his left hand, fired off a blob of water. The blob flew directly above Ned's head and combusted from the bottom, pouring down a heavy ounce of water that soaked his hair into a flippy mass that covered his eyes like Oodles. This gave Fred an opportunity to divert him into one of his holes.

"So…Ned."

He jumped backwards from the bush leading into the hole, but Ned was too smart to know that the bush was not there before, and his staff brushed it away. With an open, gaping mouth, Fred darted his eyes up an down, five times over.

"You'd think I was retarded enough to fall through that hole?"

"Yes?" Fred's voice was distant. "It would have been intensely satisfying."

Before Sora, Go-Go or Tracy could strike, salvation came with the moose carrying Hiro and Baymax on his back. A movement of surprise that sent Ned falling into the second hole.

"OH! FUCK!" he cried. "My extremity!"

Detective Tracy came to the edge of the hole, flanked by Sora and Go-Go, he aimed the barrel of the Tommy gun at Ned's nose, announcing.

"You're under arrest, you crazy woodsman."

"Wait a minute!" Hiro came up to them. "Maybe we can help him. Perhaps if we get Baymax away from the radius of the meteorite, he can fix Ned's arm."

The injury inflicted upon Ned's left arm was held within his elbow and within the next five minutes, they used a creeper to pull Ned out from the hole and brought him to another clearing where Baymax's functions were restored instantly. Baymax used a large leaf from a nearby tree to act as an impromptu cast. Baymax scanned the fracture in Ned's upper left arm and announced.

"Your right arm should heal in three to six weeks."

Ned's reply was dead serious and as gritty as his words.

"What's your endgame, robot? Enslave the human race? World domination?"

Sora, watching nearby, cocked an angry smile.

"You will never learn, will you?"

"I would also recommend applying ice to reduce swelling," was what Baymax said in return.

Hiro stepped forward.

"You should listen to Sora, not all technology is bad."

But Ned, who had recovered his staff from the hole by just simply holding onto it, aimed at Hiro with eyes of death.

"You're a goddamned fool to think that. And I don't give a flying fuck what your brother or anyone else says, technology will be the down fall for us all!"

"Spoken like a true madman."

Detective Tracy pulled out a pair of handcuffs as he said, intending to go gently so as not to interrupt the healing process, but before he could do so, Ned brought his upper body down and somersaulted away.

"Just you wait!"

His voice echoed into the night, fading away into the shadows.

"Well, it was worth a shot, now let's go home, Hiro. Your aunt must be worried sick."

"Heathcliff should be the one who's worried sick."

That was Fred who said that and when they got back to the limo two minutes later, they could see him uncharacteristically bathing in the jacuzzi. Fred thought it best not the disturb, but as they waited for the butler to notice them, the unsuspecting figure of the Shadow stood perched above the entryway.

"They have proven themselves worthy, but only time will tell when I can form a proper alliance with these youthful warriors."

He said this to no one in particular, but he turned away and disappeared in black smoke to continue his contemplating.


	7. Failure Mode

"Tonight was the night of the gala held at the Legion of Honor art museum. It was built in 1915 by George Applegate, who had originally designed it for the Panama-Pacific Exhibition and it was three quarters smaller than the original structure in Paris. The great works of art from Ed Ruscha to Fernand Leger adorned the walls that were decorated in the Empire style of interior…the Empire of the Sun.

Fred poked his head out from the sewer lid that was placed just before the steps of the building and turned his head to the museum while Honey Lemon, dressed in her superhero suit, sat on the very edge of a Noodle Burger establishment, her figure captured by the red neon blow of the sign.

"I'm so excited! Are you?"

On her left, Hiro sat with his chin resting on his right hand, looking displeased in a negative imitation of _The Thinker_. As a young man whose primary interests were science and technology, art really wasn't his specialty. It was beautiful, sure, but at times it could be very boring just staring at all those pictures the way young teens were glued to their computer screens. Except those screens presented something more interesting. As for Tadashi's taste in art…well, you might as well say that his appreciation was slightly better compared to Hiro's.

Fred narrated to himself, under a voice that no one could hear.

"All is quiet, except for now. Art galas are in like the top three favorite supervillain attack events. Along with big parades and experimental demonstrations."

Honey tried to cheer Hiro up.

"Well, whatever Fred has in mind, I just can't wait to see the new Shimamoto exhibit!"

The armored Baymax, who had been hiding behind the sign on Hiro's left, asked Honey.

"Who or what is Shimamoto?"

"Lenore Shimamoto was an amazing artist and my idol."

"Never heard of her," came the voice of Sora from Honey's right. "But then again, I have never even lived here for my whole life to begin with."

Honey took out from her normal purse an emerald covered book that seemed to be 250 pages long, titled _The Art of Japanifornia_ by Kenji Shimoura.

"She painted _City Rising,_ the famous master piece that they are unveiling tonight. It was lost for almost a hundred years after she died in her old age. It captures the city's rebirth after 1906 earthquake that destroyed the city, as well as the beginning of the period of how San Fransokyo looked before Hirohito took over this half of the country."

Her period of reminiscence and nostalgia was brought to a halt by sound of a glass breaking, and a brown skinned security guard named John rushed right out of the doros announcing to the pedestrians and his fellow men.

"The museum is being robbed by an inhuman monster!"

The monster turned out to be Globby and he was definitely pissed.

"I am still a human being underneath this!"

When Big Hero 6 had come through the door, Globby had (archetypically) used the cliché entrance of crashing through a roof, but it seemed that his skin was sticky enough to attach twelve slabs of glass into his body, having penetrated five inches into his skin.

"Damn it."

Globby was lucky that his bones had been completely dispersed as a result of his transformation, otherwise he would have been fatally injured, or worse, killed.

Hiro placed his hands on his fists like a true super and shook his head in a smile of dismay.

"I don't know what to call you Globby, a sub-par supervillain or a total loser."

"I'd be careful of your words, if I were you, Hiro," Sora spoke into his left ear. "There may still be a chance of redemption for him."

"How I wish it were true," Honey rubbed her lower arms with her hands, remembering how her own attempt provided nothing but inspiration for the initiate super-criminal.

As Globby pulled the heavy shard that had been lodged into his upper right arm, Sora's Keyblade materialized in his right hand and he charged at Globby, ignoring the Aesop forewarning of Baymax.

"Broken glass can be hazardous."

Sora just swung the teeth of the Kingdom Key Chain at Globby's heart, which pushed him away into the wall that lay directly behind him. The striking force had enough of a shock to burst the shards of glass out from his rubbery skin. But then, Globby's left arm extended outwards, aiming towards a panoramic artwork of what looked like the view of San Fransokyo's bay, including the Golden Gate Bridge in the center, drawn in gauche sepias.

"MINE!" he yelled.

To Sora and the team's antipathy, two limbs sprouted from his spine and gripped the alcove above the entryway to a hall. This hall led further into the museum, displaying lesser known works of art. Like a slingshot, Globby was off and the team chased after him. Hiro hopped onto the back of Baymax and it took him about a second for his engines to kick in on full thrust.

The two limbs sticking from the back of Globby's spine grappled the walls, carrying him at a height of three feet above the ground. Seeing the team in hot pursuit of him, Globby turned clockwise to the right in a 120 degree turn and his right arm fired off some patches of purple goo that splatted against the tiles and the walls, somewhat desecrating the works of art by just a tad. Honey Lemon knew this, and cringed at the damaged as she shouted into everyone else's communicators.

"WE HAVE TO PROTECT THE PAINTINGS!"

"FREDZILLA ATTACK!"

The costumed clad mascot blew a fireball at the wall that Globby had managed to get out from. It blew into a cloud of orange and red and when it quickly dissipated, all that remained was a sad and melted drinking foundation which looked like a flower with the body of a giant python. Luckily, the water was still functionable.

"Oops," was Fred had to say about that.

"Oops is right!" Hiro scolded from the communicator. "Fire and paintings don't mix!"

He tried not to think about Tadashi's fate, since it was just a little fireball.

"Good call," pondered Fred, as he watched Globby rush himself back into the main hall.

But there, Honey Lemon was already armed with two orange balls and a red orb. She launched them into her right hand and prepared to toss them towards Globby. Once they were thrown, the flew to Globby's rear end and captured him in a large nimbus cloud of golden yellow. There was no way for him to see and the panoramic priceless painting, fell out of his arms after he flung it upwards. The painting could have been destroyed had it not been for Honey Lemon doing a cartwheel in the air and grabbing the painting to hold it like someone's forgotten baby. She landed on her feet, relieved at having retrieved the precious work of art from what could have been a permanent desecration. However, the elation had gone to her head.

" _I'm holding City Rising,_ " she whispered.

Fred came up to her out of nowhere.

"If you're talking about the famous painting," he said rapidly. "I've heard of it."

Globby, who had been lying on the floor in a melted heap of glop, looked his head up to see his intended possession in the arms of someone, who he thought, did not deserve it. He slimed his way like a cobra on the floor, with only his eyes and three lumps on his back providing the locomotion of his movement. Sora noticed this and struck the teeth of the Kingdom Key into his back.

"Don't move a muscle," he sneered, his tone turning questionable when adding. "Or lumps."

He prepared to make the call on his cell phone, but reaching for it in his left pocket only loosened his grip on the Keyblade, allowing Globby to push his way forwards and transform himself into a round purple ball with an indigo core.

"So long everybody!" he shouted to the stunned heroes. "Goodbye!"

He bounced his way outside to a conveniently passing bus of the Municipal Line and landed on the top rear of the vehicle, standing up to look back at the parting museum that faded away from his view.

"Ha! Ha!" he laughed before he saw the frightening figure of…

"The Shadow!"

The Shadow himself mocked his laugh, floating in front of him with his arms stretched all the way along with his cape. He disappeared into black smoke just as Globby neglected to notice a streetlight that pinned his body to the roof.

"Damn that Shadow guy," was all he could mutter before he zoomed off unsuspectingly into the night.

When Texie Garcia heard the news on television at Club Ritz, she was absolutely _livid_. She was standing before Duke and Sugar, who were once Globby's associates and esteemed friends, in the dining room by the countertop bar.

"Globby robbed the art museum and you didn't tell me?!"

"What could we do?" quivered Duke. "It's not like we associate ourselves with that freako anymore."

"When I expect one of the modernist criminals to steal something, I expect having someone on my side do as they are told."

"How could we tell?" Sugar shook her head. "If we had been keeping tabs on Dibs, we would have informed you right away."

"Nevertheless," Texie fluttered her eyelashes violently. "Globby is out there and could be working for Yama or who knows who. We have to get that painting he stole and figure out its importance, because I have strong doubts that our 'former friend' is a connoisseur."

Ribs, having heard the commotion from upstairs, came down to see Texie pointing her right index finger at him.

"Get me Spaldoni on the phone. We're going to have a sit-down."

That following morning at the Lucky Cat Café, Wasabi's eyes widened.

"Globby's back?"

He, along with Go-Go, Goofy and Donald, sitting at the usual round table, were surprised. Even though Honey Lemon had tried to help Globby use his powers for good, the poor man refused to listen to reason and he used his new appearance to pilfer and plunder the city of it's valuables.

"Well at least we saved the painting," Hiro said slowly.

Fred's speech was at a normal speed. He sounded as snooty as the stuffy socialites he liked least of all.

"A very famous painting called _City Rising_."

At that moment, Aunt Cass came in with large dish of melted American cheese laden nachos topped by a boiled egg and some bacon on the sides.

"Guess what I made!" she sang at the last moment she set the dish down. "Breakfast nachos _el diablo!_ One of my favorites."

She turned her eyes to Hiro, asking.

"What were you guys doing out so late last night?"

Hiro was quick to reply.

"Studying."

But the illusion was quickly broken by a blue clock appearing on Baymax's screen. The time on it read seven o'clock.

"Hiro, this is a reminder: you have a school project due today that is currently ten percent complete."

The colors of death appeared in the words "Due Today" on Baymax's screen. "Due" was in black, "Today" was in red and the number of 10% followed after it.

This nearly caused a panic attack to Hiro, who cringed as his right hand gave a slicing gesture to Baymax, silently praying for him to shut up. But unfortunately, Aunt Cass heard him.

"Shouldn't you have done it already?"

Hiro looked over his right shoulder towards his aunt and gave her a cocky, confident smile.

"Don't worry, Aunt Cass, I'll improvise."

"Tadashi would have done better than improvise. I remember the number of times you finished your projects at the last minute back in high school."

"Well, it worked like that back then," Hiro defended. "So I am sure it will work now."

Hiro could hardly wait to show it off once he reached the classroom, standing before Professor Granville and Miss Lane, who were carrying clipboards in their arms.

"All right class," she announced. "I hope you have used your time wisely for this seismic project."

The pen in her right hand tapped four buttons on the round projector on the desk behind her and it displayed an indigo blue screen, which would display the percentage of each student whose desk would vibrate in a simulated earthquake. This project was to test model buildings made from actual building materials to see if they could withstand such earthquake like the one from 1906. These vibrations were meant to go up to a 9.0 quake on the Richter magnitude scale, for that number was the total grade students would receive should their models remain intact throughout the entire vibration period.

Hiro was even more confident than ever.

"Totally wisely," he muttered to no one in particular.

Karmi came in carrying a pink colored model of a skyscraper that looked like a Japanese styled version of the Empire State Building.

"Mine's ready," she smiled after placing it down. "It uses nickel titanium as a shape memory alloy, which allows it to have increased placidity under pressure."

"Very good! Now let's shake it and break it."

Professor Granville's right hand was already on the knob of the device, her index and thumb turning slowly up to 2.0, the purple colored number appearing on the screen. Soon the table began to vibrate with a hum and the model building jiggled. She brought the dial up to 6.0 and the vibration turned violent, shuddering back and forth in a smooth motion. Cracks began to appear as the number reached up to 8.5 and Karmi was just praying for her model building to succeed.

But things looked bright, the Richter scale hit 9.0 and the spire, the top of the left side wall and the bottom of the right flew off in opposing directions. Professor Granville gave the score as…

"8.5"

She wrote it down in her clipboard and so did Miss Lane, who reassured the not-too-distraught Karmi.

"Maybe next time you should make the materials more…stronger."

"Exactly Miss Lane," Professor Granville stated after finishing off the number. "I am confident that Karmi can do better. Let's see version 2.0 next week."

Hiro did not know whether to laugh or feel sorry for the poor girl when the teachers announced his name.

"Your turn Mr. Hamada."

Hiro placed his blood-colored skyscraper model on the table. It looked like a Japanese version of the Willis Tower from Chicago with only one spire.

"My version has elastomer dampers on it."

Professor Granville's eagle eyes could not help but notice how… _rouge_ it looked.

"Is the paint still wet?"

"No!" Hiro forced a smile. "That would imply that I threw it together at the last minute!"

"If you were anything like your brother, Mr. Hamada, you would know better than to do such a thing. But let's see if your building can save us from another great catastrophe."

At that, Professor Granville laid her left hand on the dial and the number went up to 3.0. As the table began to quake, there a faint squeezing sound, beginning with the formation of the cracks that rapidly passed along the building and as the shaking grew violent, the structure's middle frame cracked an opening in the middle, no longer able to hold itself under the strain. Hiro's quick-responding hands placed themselves on the upper half, preventing it from toppling over.

The vibration ceased and Hiro whimpered in fear as the professors walked closer to his table.

"I'll give you a D for the time being."

But along with that, the top could not hold any longer and the spire crashed into Hiro's shirt, leaving a ten-inch stain in the middle that infected the front sides of his hoodie. Karmi, who had immediately disposed of her cracked ruins, photographed Hiro looking stunned with the way his arms were stretched out. Any previous sympathetic feelings that he had towards her seemed to have disappeared.

"End scene," she whispered.

Returning to the lab with a stain too bright to be mistaken for blood, Hiro found Sora peering his eyes at the 150th page of _The Art of Japanifornia_ , containing a detailed description and a photograph of _City Rising_ which read:

"After the 1906 earthquake, known to locals as "The Great Catastrophe", destroyed most of San Francisco, Lenore Shimamoto was humbled and inspired by the resilience of its citizens. She felt it was necessary to somehow communicate their courage in the face of tragedy the survivors and victims of the disaster. In 1907, she painted her most famous masterpiece, _City Rising_.

The painting depicts the absolute devastation caused by the earthquake before it's reconstruction into the new, optimistic, partially-rebuilt San Fransokyo. City planners claim the painting inspired them to build on top of the wreckage of old San Francisco.

 _City Rising_ is the one work Shimamoto never signed. She said she did not deserve any credit and that it was the heroic residents of San Fransokyo who were the real heroes, the very essence of honor, glory, pride and valor, that brought the old city out from the darkness and into the light.

When the Japanese defeated the Americans in World War II, Emperor Hirohito hung this painting in his Sacramento palace until the day he died, claiming that it reminded him a peaceful era between the two countries. In favor of its historical significance, it was moved to and is now permanently on display at the Legion of Honor art museum."

Baymax, who had been listening to Honey regale her tale, cocked his head to the left by five degrees with a typical robot's reply.

"I do not understand the meaning, purpose or crux of art."

"Well…"

Honey took a deep breath, her words penetrating the human side of Baymax.

"To create art is to be human."

She placed her right hand on her heart as Sora gave his own opinion.

"I'm not that much of an artist myself, but even I know this."

Baymax blinked his eyes, replying slowly, "I am neither."

Both humans knew they need a solution, even though Tadashi had planted his DNA into the healthcare chip.

"How do I put this?" Honey pondered.

She immediately found the answer.

"Let's just say that it will be good for healthcare reasons."

"We'll call it 'art therapy'," Sora coined.

"Perhaps I should increase my knowledge of art," replied Baymax putting his left hand over his heart. "Will you teach me?"

"Of course, we will!" Honey squealed. "To me, art is about expressing your feelings."

That was when they had caught Hiro's attention. Honey took one glance at the stain and gasped as she placed her hands over her collar bone.

" _Dios mio_ , Hiro, are you bleeding?"

Baymax took a quick scan of the stain.

"That is actually red paint," he finished with one nod. "It is non-toxic."

All three humans knew the answer.

"So let me guess," Sora deduced. "Your project was a _rushed_ masterpiece?"

Hiro's eyes expressed emotions more violent than the red paint covering the middle of his front.

"Yeah, no shit, Ken Holt."

About fifteen seconds later, Fred entered through the open door, holding his iPhone 8.

"Look at this, guys!"

He pointed his right index finger at the video on the school's social media website, no doubly posted by Karmi Iosama, of Hiro's spire toppling over and staining his shirt. Hiro was even more pissed, but his patience detained him from strangling the team's local color.

"Fred, you traitorous bastard."

Hearing Hiro seethe under his teeth made Sora and Honey shake their heads in denial. Fred took one look over at the video and said, in a regrettable voice.

"Oh, I am so sorry, Hiro. I'll flag it!"

And he did just that.

Honey laid her right hand on Hiro's left shoulder.

"We learn more from our mistakes than our successes, Hiro. Everyone I know, knows that."

"Take my Master Qualification Exam," put in Sora. "After Xehanort and his fellow obedient fucked it up for me, I learned that being a master doesn't come with just an exam, it comes with experience and accomplishments."

"See?"

Fred extended his left hand to Sora's chest after putting the phone away.

At that moment, Hiro smiled.

"Never mind, Honey, I've got plenty of ideas to formulate and materialize before the next class."

"Like what?" Sora asked, placing his hands on his hips.

"I'll show you in a couple of minutes."

Twelve minutes later, Hiro brought his teammates, including Goofy, Sora and Donald into Tadashi's lab. He had already placed the sculpture, a cream yellow version of his original with pinkish barriers between the sections, was already on the Richter scale platform.

"How does a mag-lev version of this sound to you?"

Pressing the button on his tablet, the sculpture hovered above the platform by twenty inches, supported by a ray of three pale blue circles. But Go-Go, sitting with her arms crossed, had her strongest dobuts.

"That's what I did when I was a freshman"

Hiro felt like a plagiarist caught red-handed as his mouth dropped into a full blown flabbergasted mode.

A day later, he proposed another design. It squirted indigo goop as he explained.

"If there are any fractures, the foam, which is dry and flexible, will keep it from falling."

Honey tried not to sound too solemn on her critique.

"I'm sure that doesn't look anything like the one I did."

"You mean I—? No wonder those plans were just lying there—GODDAMNN IT ALL!"

Hiro's speech patterns began to falter and he feared that if he presented it, Professor Granville and Miss Lane would become too suspicious and accuse him of plagiarism by copying off of a report from no more than two years ago.

Diet Smith, who had also supervised the class years ago, gave Hiro the idea of airbags, assuring him that no one else (that he knew of) had done it before.

"These high-restraint airbags could prevent the floors from pancaking. And I can assure you that the airbag idea has never been done before."

Baymax aimed his right index finger to the ceiling.

"That is the same method Tadashi used when he still a student here. It was highly effective."

Even though they were siblings, Hiro always saw to it to separate his ideas from Tadashi's. With a defeatist sigh and groan, he buried his face into Baymax's chest, mumbling.

"If only he wasn't dead, Tadashi would help me."

The only words of comfort he had gotten from Baymax were:

"There, there."

Hearing Hiro say that increased the long-suppressed grief of the team. It was Wasabi who spoke first.

"We all wish the same thing, Hiro. But you can do this without Tadashi's help."

A small tear came out of Hiro's right eye.

"Even with Tadashi's help, school has never been this hard for me before."

"It's all a part of growing up, Hiro," Sora locked his fingers together. "I went through the ordeal back home on the island."

His head turned over his right shoulder to a despondent Donald and Goofy.

"I'm pretty sure these two went through a similar ordeal."

Donald pointed his right thumb at Goofy.

"He hasn't, but I know I have."

Goofy felt insulted, but his patience (and his own weakness) kept him from laying hand that would have dislocated Donald's beak.

Back at Club Ritz's conference room, the sit down was taking place. As before Spaldoni took lead of the pow-wow, sitting at Big Boy's table, with Texie on his right, Ribs on his left, and the rest of them, Flattop, Crewy, Mumbles, Autumn, Pruneface, Stooge, etc were sitting in their own seats on the long table. Texie, sitting with her fingers locked, spoke first. After all, it was she who ordered the meeting.

"This cannot stand, Globby must die, Tracy needs to keep his nose out of our business and Big Hero 6 needs nothing more than a full trust of our operations."

"And if that doesn't work," Flattop looked for his Chicago typewriter under the table. "I say we pump their asses with lead."

Texie gave Flattop a scowl of disapproval before turning back to Spaldoni.

"Globby must die today! He's already interfered with our plans and this is the second time he has crossed the line!"

Spaldoni blew some secondhand smoke into Texie's face.

"You're overreacting, Texie, Globby ain't gonna do much harm unless he actually uses whatever he took to an actual use."

"Spud's right," Shoulders told her from the left side. "Are you willing to go to war over some piece of purple goo?"

"He had a very important invention that Duke and Sugar failed to obtain from his grasp."

"What kind of invention?" asked Autumn Hews.

"Some kind of headset, similar to the one Lord Deathstrike used for his microbots."

"And we used to be buddy-buddy with him before he turned into that thing," added Duke. "For all I care he knows too much about Texie's plot."

" _My_ plot," corrected Spladoni. "Which is why I want you two to go find Globby and ask him politely what he stole. Tell him that…'we've let bygones, be bygones'. If he refuses, try being a little bit more forceful."

"I hate to agree with Miss Garcia," Boris Arson butted in. "But we must show some strength now."

"I know what I am doing Boris, I just have to see to it that we get Big Hero 6's attention."

"And what would you lead them to believe to? That you have gone straight?"

"I'll let them believe, what I want them to believe."

His eyes peered over to his criminals in arms.

"Discussion terminated."

As they got from their seat, Boris remained close to Texie all the way down to the dining room.

"Globby is out there with who knows what and Spaldoni is worried about Big Hero 6 finding out about our motives."

"That's what worries me, although if I remember correctly, that break-in was only an attempt that was foiled by Big Hero 6. All we need is for Duke and Sugar to stake out the museum, tail Globby and get the item he plans to steal."

"What about Black Pearl? She seems like an easily seductive dame."

"Her time will come soon enough. Right now, to lower suspicion on her near-brush with Tracy, I've had her doing Spaldoni's cooking and laundry out of plain sight."

Boris shot a doubtful look of concern at Texie. Even though cooking and cleaning were the traditional specialties of a woman back in the old country, having to use her as a tool waiting to be polished seemed almost underappreciative, even by his standards.

Hiro knew that he was going to succeed at his project, it would have to look original, if not, distant from any of his cohorts. After all, he got in just being himself. Looking back at his sculpture skyscraper, he imagined it being carried by thin legs of microbots or silver steel ones with red boots for protection. He went with the latter to avoid risking his identity, for the steel legs seemed to make the walking sculpture run faster than the largest insect ever recorded.

"I've got this," he would say to himself as he worked.

But next day came and he soon locked eyes on the sculpture, running left off of the table, then back again once it reached the left wall and as Hiro leaned down to stop it, it landed on his right leg and pinned him to the floor, leaving a shady footprint on his right eye once the boot made contact. He opened the eye of that side just in time to see Karmi photographing him with her Samsung, flanked by two boys and one other girl in a red shirt.

With the horrid memories of elementary to high school bullying playing back into him, Hiro shouted.

"WILL YOU STOP?!"

The others behind Karmi took back their cameras and returned them to their pockets, but Karmi herself was looking at him like a clown, a class clown who sole purpose in life was one hundred percent rapid fire failure.

 _Please help me, Tadashi. I'm being ostracized._

He later confronted Miss Lane and Professor Granville in the latter's office, one hour after class had ended.

"To be honest, ladies," he said apologetically. "I'm just not good at this."

Professor Granville shook her head and gave Hiro the face of all the support he needed…albeit professionally.

"Mr. Hamada, I'm the one who delivers final judgement as to whether or not a student of your4 intellectual capacity is no good at this. You can't just take my favorite part of the job away."

Miss Lane's eyebrows shot straight up

" _Your_ favorite part of the job? My favorite part of the job is helping students more than you'll be able to!"

"Don't argue with my methods, Miss Lane, I am a well-balanced person. A well-balanced person who does not let geniuses like Hiro Hamada get off easy. He is going to rise to this challenge."

Hiro looked doubtful.

"What if I can't?"

Professor Granville's attention went to Hiro.

"Then you fail. And as the saying goes: 'if you don't succeed, try again.'"

Before Hiro could take this into consideration with his words, Karmi burst through the door with her magenta skyscraper, holding it by the bottom.

"Professor G! My new prototype is ready to go."

Her eyes narrowed at Hiro.

"But if you want Hiro to say he's no good a few times, it's your call. I mean, what can you expect from a kid whose brother was stupid enough to go _kamikaze_ into a burning building?"

As it would be one of those things that Karmi would regret later in life, Hiro leaned his head for a better view of Karmi's profile hidden behind her skyscraper and glowered while keeping an indoor voice.

"My _nii-san_ was not stupid!"

His antagonism turned to wretchedness.

"He just didn't know what really happened."

Miss Lane stood up for Hiro.

"And if I were you, Miss Iosama, I would take that back _right now!_ "

Professor Granville tamed her temper.

"I'm sure she did not mean it, Miss Lane."

But to Hiro, Karmi really did mean it. Tears formed, and not wanting to expose them in front of his frenemy, he turned clockwise and slammed the door shut behind him, his sobs muffled behind the door. Karmi, who had taken one last look at Hiro before the door sealed him away from her, began pondering the hurtful nature of her words. Outside, Hiro prayed again.

 _Okaasan, Otousan, what do you think of me now?_

Complacent that Hiro was getting along just fine without their help, Honey decided to take Baymax to the Legion of Honor. Sora, Donald and Goofy thought of going since they seemed more interested in the other artworks that Sora had bypassed during the chase after Globby. The marble floor and the Neo-Classical architecture of the museum's interior provided the three adventurers with the same reactions of awe and appreciation for elegance when they had stepped into the doors of Lee Manor for the first time, one year earlier. The foyer spanned 30 feet in height and 50 feet in length, with wide emerald cushion benches adorning the walls.

In the meantime, Honey was glad to see two men putting _City Rising_ back to where it belonged. She smiled as they carefully adjusted it and one balding brown-skinned guard told them.

"Not to worry, Miss. Nobody ain't getting' it on my watch."

Satisfied, she and Baymax looked through the artworks of the museum's west wing, displaying landscapes for forests at night, and beaches in the morning. There was even one artwork signed by Amedeo Modigliani depicting a woman in the nude. Baymax found it peculiar as to why someone would do something so risqué, but Honey told her that sometimes for the sake of art, you would have to do things that most people don't normally do, like undressing out in the open.

"Honey Lemon," said Baymax at the end of the west wing tour. "Thank you for teaching me about art."

" _Gracias._ "

They came upon an Elizabethan era oil portrait of an obese man with brown hair combed back , a moustache, a large goatee and a ruff adorning his neck above a black suit and brown sleeves.

"Look at this portrait. What do you see?"

"I see a man suffering from rosacea, a lack of exercise and an excessive consumption of red meat."

Honey shook her head.

"Let me put it in a different way: to understand art, you have to feel it—in your heart. Perhaps if we tried something more abstract…"

They found one of a man in an olive suit looking almost completely upside down. Baymax was speechless for eight seconds before he said.

"That man seems to have suffered a terrible accident."

Honey shook her head, exhasperated.

"No, Baymax, he's painted that way to express emotion."

Then she tried to search for the Tadashi in the robot.

"When Tadashi took me on a date once, to this very museum, he told me many things about art more than my own knowledge of it."

"I may have Tadashi's DNA, but he did not program me to feel emotions. He only programed me to monitor emotions in others."

He pointed his right index finger in the direction of Honey's heart.

"You are frustrated."

Honey gave the robot a sick grin. This was superfluous compared to that date some two years back.

"I'm fine!"

"Your vocal tones indicate frustration."

From behind the young lady, Fred appeared, followed by Donald, Sora and Goofy. The quartet seemed interested molten piece of drinking fountain. To it's right was a yellow sign read by a British man who said:

"Caution: Water Hazard."

The man had a brown pointed mustache with wavy brown hair, a black jacket, a white turtleneck shirt and an opposing lower half covered in brown. He, in Fred's mind, looked very much like a Shakespearean thespian, and could even fill in the role of the great man himself. His critique on the molten fountain continued.

"How can one not appreciate it's existence is beyond me. I could turn myself into a cannibal and eat the creator who made this masterpiece."

Fred, being more social towards the upper class, greeted the man as formally as he could ever be.

"That creator would be mw," he said, placing his left hand to his heart. "My name is Fred Lee."

The gasped as he lit up a bright smile.

"It is an honor to meet you, sir!" he said, shaking his right hand with his left. "You have moved me."

Fred was surprised. As an Asian female in pink round glasses observed this out of notice, Sora could express a silent compliment to Fred's unintended artwork. Baymax, who had also been watching this, asked.

"Is this also art?"

Honey just dragged him away, feeling embarrassed at the idea of having broguh Baymax here in the first place.

"Maybe that's enough art for one day."

Globby had taken the external vent from the east wing of the building and found the shafts to be too small and crowded, even for his structure. The steel was harder than ice, whenever somebody gets stuck on it, and his right leg, which had been caught on a loose opening, suffered a whiplash once he pulled on it and the foot struck the back of his head.

"Ow!" he cried trying not be loud. "Goddamn it!"

Fred and the three heroes, who had caught up with Honey and Baymax in the foyer, heard his cry.

"Did you hear that?" Honey's nerves were on edge.

"Must be seen, felt and heard, art is complicated."

Baymax's wisdom did little to help the situation as Sora took up a defensive stance.

"We had better be on our guard."

The noise was incomprehensible compared to the rattling of a vent, which opened up to reveal the falling Globby landing smack dab on a sharp work of art made of seven limbs resembling steel shark fins. The security guard, doing his job, pointed his left index finger to Globby's guilty-ridden face and shouted.

"Don't touch that!"

He pointed his Glock at Globby before he could even think about moving. Little did he know, however, that bullets would do little to a man made from gelatin.

Meanwhile, in his garage, Hiro had been tapping the eraser end of his pencil, held in his right hand over a pile of 86 pieces of blank paper, looking bored to death. Now, he was really wishing that Tadashi would be there to help him…but of course, there were some moments where he made some ideas all on his own. Yet thinking about his brother and what Karmi would do to him next only bought pain to his case.

"GODDAMN IT ALL!"

In his rage, he split the papers into nine halves, which sprinkled into fake snow against the faces of Go-Go and Wasabi.

"What's with the phony snowflakes?" Go-Go asked.

Hiro suddenly regained his composure.

"I was just trying to save some time."

"But you're wasting the lives of trees," Wasabi added. "Those trees died for a reason. If Tadashi died for one reason, it was—"

Before he could say "sacrifice", Hiro's tear-works began to kick in and he used his arms to shield his eyes.

"PLEASE! I don't want to hear it again."

"Then he would want you to stop your angst, Hiro."

The cell-phone from Go-Go's right pocket rang and she picked it up. A text from Honey saying:

"Globby's back."

This seemed to snap Hiro out of mourning.

"Then let's go!"

But Wasabi looked doubtful.

"Remember when we had to escape from Big Boy and his men using my car?"

"I thought Tracy got it out," Go-Go crossed her arms at this.

"Well, my parents weren't too happy about this, so they impounded the car."

Hearing Tracy's name gave Hiro an idea.

"Why don't we ask Tracy to give us a ride?"

He took out his cell and dialed in 911.

"Tracy here."

"Could you give us a lift to the Legion of Honor art museum? Globby's causing trouble and I don't Baymax with me."

"I'm on my way."

Hiro grabbed Honey, Fred and Baymax's suits, which he had been repairing simultaneously and went outside to wait for Tracy. As soon as the plainclothes detective arrived, Hiro stuffed them in the trunk after putting on his own suit as Go-Go and Wasabi followed. Little did they know about the call being picked up on Spaldoni's taps which informed Texie, who informed Duke and Sugar by phone to follow Globby from the museum.

At the museum, Fred asked.

"Did you at least bring our suits?"

Hiro directed his hands to the trunk.

"They're in the trunk, now where's Globby?"

"Inside," Honey told him. "He's got _City Rising_ but the museum is on lock-down, so he's trapped in there..."

And of course, he was, there was little for Globby to do other than place his fingers under the steel doors and lift them up without budge. The only thing his ears could hear were his own grunts. After three pulls, his arms were literally ripped from the shoulder joints and he landed back first. In spite of his elastic condition, Globby could feel the excruciating nature of the pain.

"Damn security."

He muttered this before transforming into a ball, which bounced off the door and ricocheted off the roof. Globby managed to find his humanoid figure before his face and the rest of his front crashed into the tan wall. Then he flipped backwards, still sticking to it, front again, then again in the back, landing on the sharp sculpture. Any blood that Globby would have leaked, had long since been fused into his current state.

But then, he sneered wickedly as it gave him an idea. Such strength unseen by the untrained eye would prove useful to getting out of these situations.

"Niece piece…"

Getting down from the sculpture by transforming himself into puddle, Globby's arms took the bottom of the piece and he charged toward the door, strongly intent on breaking it down.

But it was then, that the door opened up from the bottom…by Baymax, who lifted it effortlessly. Both he and Hiro were obstructing his escape, but a quick reflex from Hiro dodging the oncoming creature allowed him charge his way out too easily. Both he and the creation fell down to the bottom of the steps as the others watched, including Duke and Sugar, who had taken their vantage point from a bush on the left side on the façade.

Funny thing, the piece seemed to stand perfectly upright on it's bottom while his head was nearly bifurcated by a thin black lamppost. He stood up, ready to inflict fisticuffs on Big Hero 6.

"You thought _that_ could hold me?"

And instead of a fistfight as Tracy had been expecting, Globby's left hand extended incredulously back to the interior and Honey knew in an instant what his target was.

"He's going after the painting!"

And his elongated hand had already obtained it before Sora, Hiro or Go-Go could even seize it back.

"I'm impressed by his sticky-ness."

Go-Go had time to speak this before Globby's right hand fired eight small blobs of purple that were decapitated into nothing by Wasabi's blades. Honey's left hand, fired a pink chem-ball, which Globby sidestepped to the right by a foot and froze Fred in the middle of the street after making a jump to burn him from behind.

"Not this time!" Globby sneered and he curled himself into a ball to avoid the groping arms of Wasabi.

Duke and Sugar, whose eyes were locked upon him, watched the round bastard of a glob run Tracy, Sora, Goofy and Donald over. It made laugh before realizing what Texie had commanded them to do. They left the bush and followed Globby just as Hiro and Baymax took off into the air while Go-Go ran on the sidewalk.

The purple ball rolled down 34th Avenue and onto Clement Street, where Go-Go jumped over a rolling bus, and Globby, whose hands and head were sticking out of the ball, was holding _City Rising_ as carefully as he could be. Duke, and Sugar, running on foot, did little to catch up, but Hiro and Baymax were faster. Globby could care less at the moment, he was having too much fun over his victory.

"I cannot believe it!" he shouted to the world. "MY VERY FIRST SUCESSFUL HEIST, FUCK YEAH!"

Moving east through sparse traffic, Globby had let the moment of victory go to his head as he soon found himself and the painting smacked into the hovering torso of Baymax. Baymax, who was ready to strike him with his left fist, reminded the criminal in a soft reprimand.

"That painting does not belong to you."

And Hiro's right hand took it back without effort.

" _Arigato!_ " he cheered once the priceless painting was in his safe, gloved hands.

Hiro looked down to see Globby fall into the perfect _splat!_ silhouette before his upper body reformed.

"This is so not fair," he muttered out of the team's earshot. "Why do I even bother?"

His hands placed down on the tarmac helped him back to his feet. By then, Go-Go had arrived, stopping ten feet before the gooey criminal. She turned over her left shoulder to Honey, who had helped the others to their proper balance while Donald casted the Firaga spell on Fred. They arrived via Tracy's Crown Victoria and screeched to a halt in a 50 degree rotation.

"Honey, let's freeze this bastard."

Upon Go-Go's command, Honey fired the orange chem-ball in her left hand and away it flew towards Globby. He was so scared that he practically wetted himself…

…into a medium-sized puddle of crystal blue water.

The chem-ball found it's way to a blue mail box, encasing it in ice. Had it stuck Globby, he would have been frozen solid like that: a patch of thick ice. But instead, the puddle slithered to the nearest storm drain that left an echo heard by the heroes. Not a single drop remained once it had completely passed the grate.

Go-Go's eyes widened.

"Did he just….melt?"

"Well, whatever he did," Tracy said, not caring at all. "He's gone now."

But at the very end of the drain that took Globby to Baker Beach, he had rematerialized back into his purplish figure. He looked at his hands, shocked, but surprised at this new ability.

"The hell?! I can turn into water?!"

His emotions turned to contentment as he cupped his hands together.

"I wonder what else I can do…Metal!"

He scrunched his face, the headband beeped thrice and his fisted left forearm had turned to a metallic silver from top to bottom at an even rate. But every wise person knows that one must be careful with metal, which requires strength and Globby did not expect his forearm to weigh him down. He had to think of something else.

After getting his forearm back to its gelatinous state, he made himself into a living ice man, trying ever so hard to perform the perfect figure eight across the Golden Gate.

A minute later, he rolled into a square piece of stone.

Fifty-four seconds passed, and with hunger penetrating his mind, his right hand regenerated into a 30-piece bar made of the finest Swiss chocolate. Globby took a bite out of it and saw no regrets of having committed to self-cannibalism.

Forty-five seconds after, he tried to balance himself on stilts, made of light maple wood. But the way he balanced himself was something needed to work on.

And, after twenty seconds, he was crushed by his left hand having turned into a slab of red and dark cherry bricks slapped together by sloppy concrete.

Eighteen seconds came long as his hunger grew, and not caring about the threats of diabetes, had another bar of Swiss chocolate before his hands turned into gloved cookie-dough ice cream: chocolate chips sprinkled over a majority of his glove dough hands. This was followed by a swirl of ice blue cotton candy in his right hand, the same hand turning into a dark chocolate bowl with three rolls of vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce having sprouted from his left fingers and a final topping of whipped cream.

Crime had never tasted so delicious in the mind and mouth of the man formally known as Dibs Richter.

"This could be very useful."

After swallowing the ice cream whole, Globby's right hand transfigured into the perfect replica of Moljinr, the Asgardian hammer. He gave it a large thrust towards the drain pipe which completely destroyed the grating upon impact.

The power of it all made Globby feel so superior over his former friends. Now with this newfound power to his current state, he would be well prepared for his third attempt on the museum. After all, third time's the charm.

Back at Club Ritz, things were being set up for tonight when Duke and Sugar informed Texie about Globby's attempted theft of the painting. Texie's reply detracted from the subject.

"Lenore would have made a fine traditionalist with values. Women like her should instill the deeper meaning of art onto students who are struggling with their work. And when they fail, that's when they come to me…to steal artworks."

"But the question remains," Duke began. "Why would Dibs steal that particular painting?"

"The bastard probably wants it for his new hideaway. But if there is more to this painting than meets the idea, you had better convince Dibs to hand it over to you."

"We could," Sugar replied doubtfully. "But what could we say? 'Hey, Dibs, sorry that we tried to shoot you, now could you please give us that painting that you're so crazy about.'? That could almost give away the entire plan!"

Texie took a bite out of one of the dark cherries sitting in bowl in the center of the table and shook her head no.

"Spaldoni will be very unhappy if you don't find out what's making him crazy about that painting. One wrong move, and we could start a war over the greatest artworks of all time."

Duke's eyes nearly popped out from his glasses.

"A war? If that painting is so important to him…"

The idea hit him hard.

"You don't think there's something _in_ the painting, do you?"

Texie's lips formed a sneaky grin.

"That could have something important for us. Something that goes alogn the lines of a diamond in the rough."

Duke took this literally.

"You think there's a diamond in there."

Sugar gave him a displeased mug of sadness.

"Just an expression, Duke."

"And if you want Globby to earn your respect towards you two again…you'll have to either torture him, or you can do it the hard way. The only true friends I achieve are the ones who share their interests and ideals, with me."

Both Sugar and Duke nodded at the idea. Maybe the hard way would not be so hard in their eyes.

Back at Ito Ishoka Robotics Lab, Go-Go, Sora and Wasabi noticed Hiro whistling to the tune of _Sukiyaki_ without a care in the world.

"Someone's in a chipper mood today," Wasabi smiled at this.

Sora's eyes flipped over to Wasabi and he just fluttered his eyelashes before nodding his head in disagreement.

"I do that all the time whenever something traumatic happens in my life."

This of course was true, and Sora preferred it that way, no matter how maturity he had gained over his adulthood.

Goofy, admiring Go-Go's right hand disk like it was one of his own shields, whipped his head over his right shoulder to say, in a rare moment of high intelligence: "Like the time your island was destroyed? Cause, you didn't seem happy then."

"Well, I was young and foolish…almost like Hiro was when I first met him."

"What does it matter to you, Sora?" Hiro's tone sounded carefree. "I mean we scared Globby to death so much that he literally wetted himself."

"Ew," Wasabi hated the idea of internal pissing.

Honey's news was even worse. She was over by her workspace with two cylinder cups of purple gelatin on opposite ends.

"Not exactly, the volatile chemicals that turned Globby into the creature he is now combined with the neurotransmitter. He has learned how his thoughts can control his transfiguring state."

Wasabi was on the edge of fear.

"So he can transform into anything at will?"

But Hiro just as confident as ever.

"I don't care if he's made of solid particles, liquid or gas, we can take him."

"Good," Wasabi nodded. "I just hope he's not made of poisonous gas."

Then Donald looked left and right, noticing a strange absence.

"Where's Fred?"

"At the museum, quacky," Go-Go sometimes did not take too kindly to Donald's speech. "He's staking out there in case Globby strikes again."

That was what the team thought, but close to his artwork, the melted drinking fountain, he was putting up the red velvet rope and golden stands that bordered the creation from outsiders…outsiders like one Hispanic eight-year-old boy who was very thirsty. When he tried to drink from the water, by going as far as putting his hands on the rim of the dish, Fred plastered his serious face on and used his right hand to shoo him away.

"Move along, kid."

Hiro cared less about this, as he said.

"Anyway, I feel great about this. I'm ready to conquer anything."

Go-Go asked.

"Including the quake-crushing demo?"

"About that…"

Hiro took his time to vocally express one his deepest desires.

"I've decided that I'm going to quit school and spend the rest of my life helping people in my superhero career."

Sora was appalled. What good was it to help people without proper education? It made him feel like a hypocrite considering he began his like as a Key-bearer when he was fourteen, but it did not help him now that he found the urge to shout annoyingly "HIRO!" the same way Tadashi said to Hiro whenever his younger brother acted bratty.

Hiro, on the other hand, was placing a pair of 70s binoculars, one vial of green, one vial of blue-purple and another vial of blue into a black container, placing it onto a nearby silver cart. He was intending to put them into Tadashi's lab for future purposes, but before he could wheel away Honey stopped the cart with her hands from the opposite side.

"I refuse to let you quit, Hiro. Do you really want to be known as a quitter? If Tadashi were here, he'd be advising you not to quit, because he would never quit….or so we thought."

Baymax, who had been standing from the other side of the lab before a canvas, gave his own advice relating to the man who created him.

"Tadashi failed 83 times before I functioned properly."

Hiro could feel the tears welling up in his eyes and knew that Baymax said the wrong words. Or at the very least, words that made him feel inferior compared to his brother.

"Well maybe I'm nothing like Tadashi!"

And away he carted, sobbing all the way out the door.

Sora's heart felt bad for Hiro just as much as the others, and he turned to Baymax, wondering.

"Do you think we should go and talk to him?"

"Of course," Baymax lifted his right index finger upwards. "Perhaps some art therapy would be beneficial in this case."

Baymax and Sora took their time leaving the room, while Go-Go, Wasabi and Honey looked at the robot's artwork, an azure background featuring the holographic skeletons of all three of them.

"How morbid," Wasabi thought.

Hiro had been crying on his desk, his face buried into his crossed arms, for what seemed like 80 minutes. But no more than two had passed when Baymax and Sora entered the room. Baymax knew just the ticket for getting Hiro back to his chipper self. His screen activated a voice that Hiro had not heard in almost a year, give or take some recent months.

"Hello, I am Tadashi Hamada, and this is my fifty-eighth test."

Hiro turned counterclockwise, hoping that Tadashi would there to comfort him after a year of hardships with school and everything would be complacent in his world.

But to his disappointment, all he could see was Tadashi holding that familiar blackboard in front of his chest…and flames spewing from an overheated combustion of oil and gas.

Seeing those flames brought a parade of traumatic memories into Hiro's field of vision; being shielded by Sora from the explosion, the charred ruins, the big splotch on Tadashi's head from the gunshot wound…and Tadashi telling him how much he loved him.

But all of that seemed to change when Tadashi got a fire extinguisher off of Baymax's screen and shot a charge of white smoke at the camera. Once they disappeared and he was back in view, he lightly threw the extinguisher to the floor and paced back and forth, infuriated.

"What the hell am I thinking? Maybe I should just give up."

He looked down, forlorn, his right hand scratching the back of his neck. But suddenly, a small glimmer of hope filled in his mind, once he realized…

"But if I give up now, who will watch over Hiro while I am gone? I have to finish."

The recording ended there, leaving Hiro with the reaction of something that he had not yet seen before: a more three-dimensional side to his brother. It was a rather unique experience to see Tadashi like this out of his field of vision in the physical plane, acting like a pessimist. He wondered out loud to his substitutional brethren.

"I have never seen him like that…"

And that that exact time, Wasabi and Go-Go bolted into the room.

"Fred called," Wasabi was the first to say. "Because of what had happened, the museum has decided to put the painting in a storage."

"Sounds like a wise move to me."

"More like an unwise move," Go-Go added. "It'll be in a van driving across the city."

Hiro knew the answer right away.

"Then let's suit up."

In a van that was silver that drove into the night on Shimomoto Boulevard, the black side burned driver was trying to avoid the oncoming balls of goo that were being shot from Globby's hands. In the back, the painting was being held by four titanium cables, one for each corner, with another strapped to the bottom.

Finally, there was a puddle big enough to veer the van out of control, it spun at least four times before crashing into the heaviest lamppost that both the driver and Globby had ever seen. The driver himself felt a little woozy, but that didn't matter once Globby broke through the windshield and forced his arms into the man's throat. He died within a whole minute once the monster's fingertips reached his organs.

Then Globby went to the roof and craned his right arm over it, delivering a drop of green acid, which he also used to destroy the poor driver's internals.

"Murder has never been so sweet," he gleamed to his prized possession attached to the cables.

After cutting them off with the acid, his right hand reached in and took the painting.

"Got it!"

"Don't you ever get tired of losing?"

Globby placed the painting down from his field of vision to see Hiro and Baymax floating before him, flanked by Sora on his Keyblade Glider. He had soon come to realize that he was surrounded by the rest of Big Hero 6 and the unexpected help of the Shadow.

"No," he said, slowly and menacingly at the team. "I think today is my lucky day."

Honey just beamed.

"I love your positive attitude, Globby."

Her tone went serious.

"Which is why you should use your powers for good."

"How about you fuck off and let me do my shindig?"

Seeing no choice, Honey's right hand, obtained an orange chem-ball of yellow liquid, which thrusted itself into Globby's strong torso and bounced back to its master. Arms shielding herself, Honey disappeared into a mustard mass, which passed over her and shorted out the circuits of her purse.

Then, Globby curved his left arm down towards the sidewalk, lifting himself off the truck and he ran his way to freedom, the painting stuck to his back. Go-Go took off after him, but Globby was quick to sense this and he spun counterclockwise to face her.

"Careful!"

As he shouted this, he slammed in hands into the tarmac and garden of purple crystals that were lethally sharp, grew from under the grounds, heading straight towards Go-Go. She fell face down, but thankfully, did not bleed, in part due to her visor.

Fred jumped onto the buildings from the left side, intent on tackling Globby from that flank, but the monster's left hand formed into a shield of the finest German steel.

"Shut your damn firehole!" he shouted as threw sticky green gelatin from his right.

This "glue" seemed to go right into the interior of the suit, for Fred was shouting a muffled reply of "Get this thing offa me!"

"I gotcha, buddy!"

Wasabi raced to the confrontation just as three mauve balls appeared from Globby's right hand in cute poppy sounds and he fired at them. Upon contact, this covered Wasabi in an eighteen-foot mass of purple glob that expanded all the way to cover Fred.

The Shadow, standing behind Globby, watched Hiro on Baymax and Sora, Goofy and Donald on the Keyblade Glider fly above them to Globby's rear. The Shadow was firing away while Baymax fired the rocket fist, now having a complete knowledge of how valuable art was. When the Shadow was on his last bullet and the rocket fist was just thirty feet away from him, Globby's left arm wrapped around the fist and with all of his willpower, he smashed it back down, knuckles fist, into the surface. The tons of steel and the gas and fuel used to power the rocket, created a huge explosion that brought patches of purple all across the street. One was large enough to cover Baymax's visor, sending Hiro falling to the street and knocking the three adventurers off the glider.

When Hiro, Baymax and the rest landed on the street, they looked to see an oddly square slab of stone just standing there before its eyes turned green and the grey was colored with purple. Globby was laughing at them in an evil way before he calmed himself.

"If at first you don't succeed, you might as well give up."

And his left hand produced a 30-piece chocolate bar.

"Care for some chocolate? I gotta go."

Before Hiro could reply, all he saw was the bar in his hands, turning them over his right shoulder to see Globby having safely tucked the painting away into his internals and the lower half of his body had turned into a spring, bouncing and laughing giddily away into the towering skyscrapers. All Honey Lemon had to say about was a mournful sentence.

"That was awful! And to think I could have actually succeeded at reforming him this time."

"Sometimes," Fred replied, cleaning off the goo with his hands. "Redemption can be overrated, especially from a supervillain's point of view."

"Plainly and simply," Sora crossed his arms with a heavy sigh. "We failed."

Honey bowed her head in despair.

"Worst of all, we even failed Lenore Shimamoto."

"It almost seems like a relief, considering she's dead already," Go-Go groaned while picking herself up.

At that time, Tracy arrived in his Crown Victoria, having tracked Big Hero 6 via Hiro's GPS chips. By the time cars had come to a complete stop and the wailing of the sirens had faded away, the Shadow made his retreat in a cloud of smoky darkness. Tracy's eyes inspected the damage before he spoke to Hiro.

"I hope you succeeded at destroying that monster because I had Lizz preparing a feast in your honor."

"You can save it for another time, Tracy," Sora spoke for him. "Globby got away with the painting."

Hiro stood in front of Sora, not letting heavy ounces of depression go to his head once more.

"But it's not the end of the world. Globby failed at least three times to steal that painting and he was able to figure it out, eventually. It is okay to get discouraged, especially when Tadashi and I found a difficult time writing inventions. Both he and I agree that you have to pick yourself up and try again."

Wasabi, still covered by the mass of purple, was wiping himself off.

"Thanks for the pep talk, Hiro, now could you please clean this shit off of me?"

Donald used his magic from the mage's staff to clean the goo off and Duke and Sugar, who had watched the events on TV from their apartment, knew that they were at an impasse.

"We'd better call Texie," said Duke to Sugar who nodded in agreement.

They dialed the phone, and sure enough Texie picked up the line.

"Hello."

"Hey, Texie," Duke said. "Before you say anything, I want to let you know that we'll keep trying to capture Dibbs, even if it costs us our lives. Consider it as mutual respect."

He hung up, knowing full well that their former ally had a deeper fixture on the painting of their interest. It was, in short, a complete mystery that not even Dick Tracy could solve, or so they thought.

Next morning, Go-Go and Wasabi came into Tadashi's lab to check on Hiro, now motivated and full of energy to work on the project. Go-Go was the first to speak.

"Hello, Mr. Genius-Who's-Not-A-Quitter, how's it going?"

Hiro, who had been working on the bottom wiring, looked at them, easing his pressure with the fusing torch. Behind him, Baymax provided the blueprints, Honey was working on the statistics and the three adventurers were reading some of Tadashi's work documents from three years past, thinking that hey could help Hiro with a clue to strengthening the superstructure.

"Not so well, but failure seems to have given me an epiphany. I know it worked for Globby, so it will probably work for me as well."

"That's the spirit!" Wasabi placed his books down and Go-Go excused Fred out of the way. The young man came walking formally into the room with the largest piece of paper that anyone in the room had ever seen. Regularly, it was the approximate size of a surfboard.

"Hey, Honey Lemon!" he brightened up a smile as he approached her. "My 'art-painting-caution-water-hazard' just sold for a million dollars!"

Holding in both hands spread apart was the front, a light golden check with Fred's full name "Frederick Lee" in black on the top, "One Million Dollars" in the middle and his signature on the bottom right. Go-Go crossed her arms in dismay. One million dollars for a wealthy man was enough of an overkill.

"I guess art must be in the eye of the beholder."

Baymax gave a sensational opinion with his newly refined knowledge.

"Fred's art evoked many emotions today, it might be more accurate to say: 'Art is in the heart of the beholder.'"

Honey was impressed.

"You really have learned a lot about art, haven't you, Baymax? I think that was very poetic."

Baymax blinked his eyes once.

"Tadashi's memories, instilled inside my chip, have yet to grasp the full meaning of poetry."

Both girls shook their heads, and it was Honey who said.

"Maybe another time."

Then she turned to her artist of a friend.

"What are you going to do with that money, Fred? Give it to us? We could use a little bit of help in our lives with that money."

"Even better," Fred twirled the check clockwise like one of his signs. "I'm going to give it to the museum. They do need a new fountain and they just lost a priceless painting."

"Still," Sora thought to the others. "I wonder what Globby plans to with it…put it up in his room?"

There was little time to speculate, as Hiro was due to be the in classroom within three minutes. He got there just in time to present his skyscraper and when Professor Granville brought the dial on the Richter scale to 5.0, two legs came from opposing sides of the bottom and the feet turned down to stick to the desk, creating vibrational shockwaves of blue that disappeared once they left the edge of the table. They seemed to counteract with the threat by keeping the building in place with it's bronze metal cogs. Karmi, who had been prepared to give Hiro the third humiliation she had been hoping to see, was surprised as her sadistic smile turned into a surprised scowl.

"What in the hell?"

Hiro, giving her his cocky face, explained the details.

"My building has sensors to measure the seismic forces, then it sends the exact sonic pulse needed to counteract with it."

After it had reached 9.5, Professor Granville bought the scale down to stop the vibration, leaving Karmi to give out her opinion.

"So your solution is cheating?"

"No, my problem was dealing with the shaking at its source."

Professor Granville and Miss Lane came up to the workspace. All the others who were present, were impressed.

"Not only would this structure save itself," as Professor Granville had pointed out. "But it would also save the other buildings around it."

"I think it's an excellent solution," said Miss Lane. "We should recommended this to Krei Tech."

Karmi's reaction was that of disgust, captured by Hiro on his phone.

"End scene."

Now, he was truly satisfied with his work.

Meanwhile, in the more disreputable parts of the city, was a dilapidated house, with smashed tv, a crooked chair, boarded windows, a collapsed round table and loose wires from the ceiling. To Globby as he entered it, it looked as though it had once been a squatter's domain, yet he pushed himself through the door and tried to make sure that the painting was clean.

"Well…did you get the painting?"

The slow voice belonged to a thin man of a black vest, a dark faded purple shirt with sleeves rolled up to the elbows, a digital watch on his right hand and black trousers with matching shoes. The man also had a grey complexion from lack of sunlight, grey eyes and a red streak that clashed with the greys and browns of his hair. He was flanked in a round wooden table close by a nun on his right whose phosphorescent powder made her habit glow white.

The colors belonged to the likes of Obake and Sister Esclarmonde. Knowing better than to test his patience, Globby stuttered.

"Y-yes, I did. It was a lot of hard work though, trying to evade myself from Big Hero 6, Tracy and this man who calls himself the Shadow—"

Sister Esclarmonde's eyes widened.

"The Shadow? He is here?"

Globby's mood went curious.

"You know him?"

"Know him? He is my antithesis, the polar opposite in both appearance, gender and our mission in life to seek justice on the guilty."

Obake took the painting from Globby and studied the beauty of it's intricate details behind the surface.

"Interesting. Further study on your current state might be needed in order to reach your full potential."

"Potential?" Globby parroted. "The potential that will help me prove my mother that she was wrong about me?"

"Lenore Shimamoto's masterpiece is of no interest to me."

He slammed the top of the painting down on the table, releasing 78 splinters.

"Her work in the field of science is even greater….like with so many things in life. You have to look below the surface to find real value."

Obake's left index finger and thumb, took the right top corner of the painting, revealing a circle that was surrounded by four layers with three wheels on each side. Whether it be a time machine, a trans mutagen device, a portal to another dimension….only Obake knew.


	8. Aunt Cass Goes Out

Faster than the average speed of a MagLev train and more powerful than any medicine had to offer, was Baymax, rocketing through San Fransokyo at full speed. On his back, was Hiro, looking worried he peered his vision to the direction of Haight Street. They were on their way home from assisting Tracy in a petty theft that took place in the harbor until Hiro remembered that it was Monday. Monday for Movie Night. After doing away with the thieves, they took off as fast as lightning…

They had at least 16 seconds to go before the popcorn was ready…

For the first part, they had narrowly avoided crashing into One Rincon Tower and were zooming down Shimamoto Boulevard with the passing of cars, whose horns were being honked on a high pitch as a result of the Doppler effect.

11 seconds remained…

They took the metro subway tunnel down to Masonic Avenue before rising up out of the ventilation lid.

6 seconds were left…

Seeing the Lucky Cat Café up ahead, Hiro brought Baymax up to Tadashi's window and as the robot hovered, he dug his fingers under the frame, pulling it up and somersaulting into the room just as Aunt Cass came up with a blue bowl of butter flavored popcorn, shouting.

"Hiro! Time to watch _Kentucky Kaiju vs. Zombiesaurus!_ "

After removing his helmet, Hiro grabbed both ends of the screen that bordered his side from Tadashi's and concealed his entire body, while Baymax landed on the roof, waiting for Hiro's signal. Some, who had noticed him standing there to keep his balance, paid little mind.

Anyway, Hiro had stuck his head out from the left side of the screen in an 80-degree angle and thought of a little white lie. He thought it up quick.

"Sure, Aunt Cass! I was just putting on my pajamas. Movie night's not the same without Tadashi around, and besides…I need to rest for tomorrow."

Aunt Cass, almost broken by hearing her late nephew's name being spoken as tough he was already there, winced for a second before inquiring.

"Where's Baymax?"

Within his right wrist computer, Hiro activated the signal and on the receiving end came Baymax's reply of: "Hello, Aunt Cass."

It was quite obvious that with his armor on, Baymax would not be able to fit through the windows. He would have to strip Baymax back to his squishy self later…about half-an-hour later. Cass could have felt a little bump from Baymax landing on the roof, but it did not concern her. She replied with an intention of coaxing Hiro to change his mind..

"Well, suit yourself. I'll just eat this popcorn by myself!"

Her voice faded away as left downstairs.

Hiro had cringed at this near-discovery, but he soon let out a deep sigh of relief. According to Fred, every wise superhero knows that you cannot reveal your true identity to anyone, not even your own family, if not on a "me to know, you to find out" basis. For in order to strike at the heart, their enemies would inflict pain and untold suffering on the ones he or she cared about the most. Sometimes it didn't work, given the lack of knowledge the enemy had of their enemy's alter ego, but Hiro had his own personal reason for not telling his secret to Aunt Cass, even though she had known about it the year before. After putting Callaghan and Big Boy behind bars, Aunt Cass had forbidden Hiro from going out on any more superhero adventures, as she was unwilling to lose another relative after recovering from Tadashi's murder.

The next morning bought a total lack of suspicion from his guardian once he had calmly finished his pancakes for breakfast. By the time he met up with Go-Go, Fred, Baymax and Sora, a long line of humanity had formed in front of the recently reconstructed Krei Tech Headquarters for whatever reason that Hiro was not aware of.

"Thanks for coming, guys," explained Fred. "Dad's stuck at the manor, so I'm representing the family."

Hiro asked.

"Do you know what this is all about?"

"No idea, but the invitation said, 'prepare to have your worries disappear'."

Baymax's reply was genuine.

"That would be an impressive therapeutic breakthrough."

Then Go-Go aimed her eyes one of the few people she liked least of all.

"Looks like Krei invited every rich asshat in the city."

Richardson Mole, following his sister Binky, noticed Go-Go looking dismayed. He interpreted it as his own way of wanting to cheer her up. And so with that, he straightened his collar and slapped on an innocent face.

"Hey, _Leiko_. Were you just talking about me?"

Go-Go rebuked this a scoff.

"As if, _faggot_. I was just pondering on thoughts that don't involve you."

Richardson frowned at this. Anyone who ever dared to call him by that name was deemed to hate him the most.

"Words hurt you know!"

And he stomped off to follow his sister.

The interior of the amphitheater was medium sized, with seats in Krei's trademark color of dark ocean blue. The visitors received clip-on badges containing their profile portraits (Baymax had his printed on his screen for obvious reasons) and found their assigned seats. Sora sat in between Hiro and Baymax, who were one row below Go-Go and Fred, who flanked Hiro from opposing sides. Fred on the right, Go-Go on the left.

Once they were seated, Hiro explained the events of last night in attentive details.

"This is the second time I almost got busted by Aunt Cass. First time I did it, I was working on Baymax's rockets when she came into the garage to do her exercises. I had to hide them behind a box and Baymax covered for me by imitating her moves. Tadashi and I always liked to stay in shape."

"You could always tell her since she already knows," Sora replied, extending his right hand out questioningly.

But Hiro greeted Sora's innocent blue eyes with a mug of sorrow.

"Sora, I can't. After we stopped Callaghan and Big Boy, I promised Aunt Cass that I wouldn't go on anymore escapades with the team. I gave her my word."

Fred butted in to Hiro's row, bringing his right index finger to the direction of the ceiling in a scholarly manner.

"Which is exactly why you should never give away your identities to anyone but your manservant and sidekicks. I know it worked for Batman, but I don't know what his parents would think of if they lived."

Further conversing was stopped short by Richardson making a "call me" gesture with his right hand. He was giving Go-Go the bedroom eyes. In return, she scowled in hushed silence.

"Give it up, shitbrain, I would _never_ date you."

The word "date" struck Hiro's brain as hard as lightning. There was a reason Aunt Cass never socialized beyond the point of friendship with the opposite sex, not finding the right man to be exact, but there were rare moments where he and Tadashi would try formulating blind dates that would never fertilize. Still, a solo attempt was storming his brain harder than ever.

"Maybe that could be the answer to get Aunt Cass from nosing around my superhero work."

Fred shook his head, thinking of a different route.

"With Richardson? He's into Go-Go and you obviously haven't heard of the concept known as May-December Romance."

"Not with Richardson," Sora's voice was aside to Fred's. "Someone else. Someone who knows how to treat her well after everything she had been through."

Hiro's left ear heard this.

"Has she been telling you her life story?"

Sora raised his hands in defense.

"It helps if you want to know somebody better."

"Well," Go-Go lounged her back in the chair. "I think you should stay out of her personal life."

"Dating might be actually good for her," Hiro told her. "As long as she doesn't go as far as getting married….I'm not ready to have an uncle…yet."

At the precise moment, the lights dimmed and the clone of Alistair Krei came in front of the stage, the audience applauding as the background screen changed from the blue logo, to a photographic portrait of himself in front of the building…

"What does it mean to be rich?"

…to himself playing pool.

"Having things?"

In front of Muirahara Woods.

"Lots of things?"

Posed in front of his Jaguar, jet and yacht.

"Expensive things?"

He approached the audience before the background turned blue, with the word "things" appearing on the screen.

"Things that other people want."

The audience applauded again.

"It could all disappear in an instant! All of your precious things…."

Everyone, including Hiro, Fred, Go-Go and Sora, were surprised to see a quartet of ninjas clad in black making their way down from the lighting catwalk and used ropes to travel their way down to stage. They armed with katanas placed on their backs. The four took defensive stances, but they didn't know better until Krei spoke again.

"If only I had someone looking out for me, if only I had…."

An invisible force knocked the ninja on his front left off the stage.

"A buddy guard."

The remaining three felt their torsos being squeezed by tight nets, that came directly from the imperceptible entity. They fell down on their heads, hard.

"Ladies and gentlemen, it is my distinct honor to introduce…"

His right thumb pressed the large button on the white remote-control device and the unseen entity became…

"Buddy-Guard. It's more than protection, it's the friend you can depend on!"

The Buddy-Guard had a central eye that was ruby red that flashed into emerald green and sky blue. The rest of its pill-shaped body was sleek white. It also had two stubby arms with three little fingers and it's head acted as a lid to hide the camera-eye.

"This is a military grade drone, capable of countering any attack. But who wants that eyesore hovering above you while taking a stroll on your private island? So we gave this little guy here the ability to turn invisible."

His right thumb pressed the round button underneath the larger and three rays cloaked the robot out of sight just as Alicia came up from the right side of the stage. Krei took from her towel-sized piece of royal purple cloth.

"But how? You may ask. Flexible display technology."

Krei held out the cloth and a holographic pattern of blue hexagons covered the cloth and the robot simultaneously.

"A high-resolution miracle. It can make you look like anyone."

As he said this, Krei used the towel to cover his entire head and with the pressing of the central button again, his head was a perfect reverse mirror image of Alicia. The two heads met face to face, perfectly creating the mirror by copying their expressions.

"…or nothing at all."

He took it off, the cloth went purple again, and he held it up in front of Alica's head, which camouflaged with the blue background. Then he took it off, held it in front of him and the green words "ORDER NOW" with the image of the robot on it's left appeared, blinking on and off.

"So be smart, buy yourself a buddy."

The audience applauded louder than ever. Krei's voice was raised to a barker's volume.

"Pre-order now in the lobby! Get 'em before they're gone!"

Everybody else left while Hiro, Go-Go and Fred went to the stage with Baymax and Sora, taking opposite of Alicia's side. Hiro was the first to ask as they walked carefully over the unconscious ninja actors. Baymax used his defibrillators to get them back into consciousness.

"I have a question to ask: How are your programming safeguards?"

"So that your buddy doesn't turn into your worst enemy?" Go-Go added, crossing her arms.

Krei perked up a professional stance.

"Not to worry, Miss Tanaka, they are very _safe_ safeguards. Very safe indeed."

His right-hand ruffled Hiro's hair and he turned clockwise before rapidly saying.

"Wellthanksforcoming, goodbye!"

He left, while Alicia stayed behind to add her own words on the subject.

"Officially, there are many safeguards, and they are awesome."

She repeated the ruffling of Hiro's hair with her own left and walked off.

Hiro could remember how Professor Robert Callaghan, who murdered both Tadashi and the original Alistair Krei, said that Krei took risks by taking shortcuts, shortcuts that saw Abigail Callaghan ending up dead after the disaster known as Project Silent Sparrow. The others were certain that Krei, or at least his copy, would know better than to make the same mistake again.

Returning to his office, Krei was just sitting down to his desk when out from nowhere came purple blanket similar to the one used for the Buddy Guard's invisibility tactic, followed by a right hand holding it belonging to a lab coat, which belonged to the body of a beige dress shirt, an Earth brown tie, forest green trousers held by a brown belt. The man wearing those clothes had round glasses, Caucasian skin and black wavy hair. It was so wavy that anyone would think that he was perfect definition of a mad scientist with the way he shouted, ginning wickedly…

"SURPRISE MOTHERFUCKER!"

Krei shielded his arms in a panic before lowering them.

"Dr. Myer?"

Dr. Mel Myer had worked for Krei Tech by almost two years, after he had taken a swift course through SFIT. This man, who stood before Krei, had entered by the doors when he wasn't looking and he did not look like sympathetically composed and quiet listener, he was more of a man who deserved credit and people who lost their credit to an Alistair Krei of any version, were to also lose their case in court.

"Uh-huh. You have some nerve to not give someone the proper credit he deserves. When you purchased my technology, you gave me your word that my invention would be used for fun things like surprise parties and dance offs."

As he threw the blanket on the desk in dismay, Krei tried to speak his voice of reason unto him.

"The Buddy Guard is fun. What's more fun than a buddy."

Mel's tone went deadly and poisonous.

"You are using it…to hurt people. Which is why I suggest you return my rightful property before I get serious with you."

Krei knew a treat when he felt or saw one. Undaunted by this, he stood up from the desk nad rested his right hand onto Mel's left shoulder.

"Mel…can I call you Mel? You've obviously been working too hard. How about we go out for some Mexican food?"

But Mel turned clockwise, the rising anger causing his blood to boil.

"Going out for Mexican food is not going to cut it and I have been working hard…working hard enough to keep you from getting your greedy little hands on them. Now you give me back my plans, or I swear to God I will FUCKING KILL YOU!"

Krei crossed his arms, still undaunted by threat.

"Go ahead, I always have a few extra clones to back myself up."

Mel's next thought was more civil.

"Then I will sue you in court."

"A brilliant idea, but I am afraid your efforts will be an exercise in futility. I always have truckload of lawyers on my side."

And he took the plans lying on the desk as he said this, his demeanor remaining smug and confident.

"Sorry to do this, Mel, but Buddy Guard is going to be huge."

And with that, he pulled out his badge, placed it near his left-hand side drawer, opened automatically with the sound of three beeps and placed it in a blue binder along with nine other projects stored in there. Mel knew that there would be a very small chance of him reclaiming his rightful property and when Krei turned clockwise, adding "Here's a few to escort you on your way out." He pressed the button in his right hand again and a trio of Buddy-Guards dropped the camo mode, revealing themselves to Mel. As he struggled to release himself of their grip, holding him by the arms and the back of his collar, Mel, forlorn and angered like a man who had lost his way to fame and stardom, taken over by someone who already had gotten it the easy way, screeched as he reached the door.

"YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE LAST OF ME YOU FUCKING ASS!"

Little did they know about their conversation, as well as the entire room, being bugged by Spaldoni's wiretaps. He immediately informed Texie of the matter by phone. About three minutes later, she was sitting at Big Boy's table in the dining room before the young criminal, Measles, Ed, Ribs, Willie the Fifth and Flyface.

"A Buddy-Guard?"

She pondered this a moment before deciding.

"How charming."

Ed, unaware of Alistair's reasons for abandoning the Apparatus, thought impulsively.

"Charming as it may be, I hope we can regain his trust in spite of everything."

"Sure," Texie puffed on her cigarette. "But's what's done is done. A clone can't be any different from it's original host."

"I'm glad you think that way," said Willie. "But I think we should clarify our terms with the new guy before he thinks about turning against us like the old one did."

Texie laid the cigarette down on the recently refreshed tablecloth and poured a hint of discord into her words.

"But his business has to remain straight. Krei still has his old self's technology, his assets, his unions, even his records. He gives charity to the poor, he does favors for the cops and the mayor. Spaldoni might consider a discreet offer to the bastard while we take his property."

"Without killing him?" Flyface's face went wide, which would have caused his fellow flies to faint dead away if they were spiritually connected to his emotions.

But Texie spread her right thumb and index finger apart by twelve inches.

"Maybe just a drop, but do you know that Lips used to act as a liaison to Krei Tech three years ago? He assisted the original Krei with things like carrying his umbrella and providing table reservations next to Big Boy. He felt like he had the head seat at the table…but things change…after Abigail died in that disaster of an experiment…Lips got it back after a long period of feeling left out. Perhaps we'll think twice before disappointing him again."

She took a long swig on the cigar again and began formulating her plan.

If Hiro were to find an eligible bachelor (in the friend zone) fit for Aunt Cass, the website San Fransokyo Singles was the place to be. The first one he looked up was Herman Wexler, aged 35, black hair, buck teeth, some stubble on the chin, a blue shirt with a white stripe and he was flanked by three chipmunks: one underneath the right of his chin, the second in his hair and the third looking over his left shoulder. His profile read:

"Hi. My name is Herman and I'm here to steal your heart (with your permission, of course) I'm looking to meet someone who's as nuts about chipmunks as I am!"

Hiro's reply to this David Seville wannabie?

"Too nutty."

With a click of the mouse button, the second suggestion was a wavy flaxen haired disk jockey with the oddest name Hiro had ever read: DJ 6ix Sk1llz Br0. His entire being of a yellow polo shirt, ocean blue sunshade glasses and matching sleeves, surrounded by a background of blue spots while he played his music from an Apple laptop bought a dubious atmosphere to Hiro, but a positive one for various arms stretched up to grab him. His profile read:

"Before you ask, ladies, this is my real name! Gotta Follow my art/my soul cuz I'm all about being real. Call me if you're done with all those other L0S3RZ you've been going out with and want to feel the transcendental beats of dating a nice guy."

Hiro's answer to the spacey DJ?

"Too weird."

The next contender was an elderly man with a long grey beard of about forty inches, yet bald on the head, by the name of Theo "Healingtree" Schwartz, whose sign was Virgo. The only thing he wore was a white diaper, or at least underwear that resembled it with eight thin black trellises in the back of it. He appeared to be in Muirahara Woods given the background of oak trees as he stood, eyes closed, and clasped above his head and standing on his left foot while his right foot rested on his left ankle. His profile read:

"Yoga instructor, crystal enthusiast, VEGAN. I lost my phone number while on a spiritual retreat in Tibet where I divested myself of all earthly belonging and attachments, can I have yours?"

Hiro's thoughts on a man of mystics?

"Too old."

Oddly enough, following page was that of Felony Carl, whose profile read:

"Reformed criminal and hopeless romantic. I did the time, but now I'm ready for wedding bells to chime."

Hiro's rejoinder?

" _Way_ too rough."

Sora, Wasabi and Fred, watching from the opposing sides of his shoulders, watched his misery of shielding his eyes with own hands as his head lowered onto the desk.

"Why can't I find anyone who suits Aunt Cass?"

Sora gave the genius his own advice.

"Maybe you should try finding someone who shares a lot in common with her. Like cats, baking…"

Hiro, lost in his own thoughts, did not realize his right index finger pressing down on the mouse button in a reactional reflex, the screen changing to a smart looking man with a brown handlebar moustache with a full set of hair and dressed smart in a brown suit with a royal purple suit and tie. A person worthy of Fred's social circle as he himself pointed out.

"What about him?"

"Too fancy," Hiro aimed his eyes towards him. "Normally, lower class people like my aunt hunker at the bottom of the social circle."

"And besides," Wasabi had to say, "the moustache does not make the man, it's what's inside that counts."

"And I agree with you," said Honey from five feet away. "Hiro should let Miss Cass choose for herself."

Hiro smiled and he rolled his chair over to her.

"She needs a little push, I need a little space and everyone wins."

At that moment, the doors swung open, surprising everyone with the entrance of Alistair Krei, and Alicia holding a Buddy-Guard in both hands at the position that almost covered her torso with the robot.

"Hello, everyone!" the cloned businessman greeted with a wave of his right hand. "Your workplace looks very roomy. The vending machine over there looks like it could use a tune-up."

Hiro got up from his chair.

"What brings you here?"

Krei's face went grim. If that were the complete case, his tone and the rest of his complexion would have turned to ice.

"I had my crack team take some extra inspections on the safeguards and it turns out that there was a slight glitch that saw four of my best scientists severely injured and the other four ending up dead."

Alicia, mourning the lost four, sighed dismissively.

"Krei Tech has a pretty spotty record for launching their products too soon. Apparently, this attracted Big Boy Caprice's attention when he bought the original Alistair Krei into his social circle. He wanted to collect insurance money should the products do anything fatal."

"And that's a fact," the clone added before his hands obtained the Buddy-Guard and he started walking over to Hiro. "Which is one reason why I am putting this in your hands."

And he literally placed it in Hiro's hands as he said this. Hiro, studying the details of the robot for a second, asked.

"What can we do to repay you if all goes well?"

"Well…" Krei locked his hands behind his back, turned to the right, and faced the team again.

"I have a very good memory from my previous host…and maybe, just maybe…"

His turned dark with malice.

"I will keep my shut about telling this world, maybe even the entire universe, that you…are Big Hero 6."

The words spilled a disturbance among the gang, casting a spell of darkness across the room in an aroma of tragedy and the threat of seeing themselves exposed…even worse than face a crowd in the manner of naturalists. Honey closed her mouth with both hands after a gasp, Wasabi looked confused, Goofy gave this with a "Huh?", Hiro narrowed his eyes in a threatening storm of emotions, Donald felt the same, Fred gave a prolonged gasp, Sora's face was a repelled surprise and all Go-Go had to say about it was…

"How did you know?"

"I have my sources. Your costumes do a piss-poor job of concealing your identities, especially with that purse of yours."

And he pointed his right index finger to Honey's chem-purse sitting on the table.

"I don't understand. I always know when to switch between my purses."

"Nobody's perfect Senorita Miyazaki, even I can be ice cold when some people don't do what I _command_ them to do."

Go-Go was outraged.

"So you're blackmailing us?"

"My attorney strongly advises using that word. So much he has even censored it."

Krei took one glowering look at the junkie before turning face to face with…

Aunt Cass with brown binder.

Their noses made a hard knock against each, it's force keeping Aunt Cass steady, but the gravity pulling Krei's back to the floor. Cass's arms were wrapped around Krei's waist just as his head was thirty inches above the floor. When his eyes looked into her's, Krei seemed recognize this woman from the memories of his original self just one year ago.

"And what brings you here, my find lady?"

"I was going to return my nephew's chemistry homework to him."

Thus she spoke as her hands pushed Krei back into the right position, then the businessman said.

"I'm feeling a little chemistry myself just about now."

Aunt Cass just giggled.

"Are you flirting with me?"

Hiro had seen plenty of romantic dramas with Tadashi and Cass to know where this was going. His eyes darted left and right, took a closer observation on the loving looks on their faces, and knew that given their class differences, a wealthy businessman and a struggling café owner, they could never be truly together.

Embarrassed, he took the homework from his aunt's arms and tried to pull her away by locking his right arm with her left.

"Okay, you can go now, Aunt Cass."

"Wait a minute."

Krei's voice stopped them.

"Aunt Cass, I remember you…"

"You do?"

Aunt Cass was stunned, but she quickly resumed her positive notion.

"People who aren't my nephews just call me Cass, or Miss Hamada."

Hiro went in front of her from the left, the tone of his voice turning venomous as he defended his aunt with shielded arms.

"Or you can't call her anything at all. You can have any woman in the world except my aunt, she's not your type."

Krei dismissed this by pushing Hiro's left shoulder away with his right hand, moving into Aunt Cass by two feet.

"How about dinner tonight…Cass? Around seven?"

"She's busy," Hiro narrowed his eyes. "So how about no?"

"You're right, Hiro," Aunt Cass told him. "I am busy."

Hiro felt relieved.

But…

"I suppose I could take the night off. If you have your own time for yourself that is…"

"As a matter of fact…I do."

Together, the two lovebirds walked hand in hand out the door.

"And before you address me. People who aren't your nephew, call me Alistair."

Everyone else was overtaken by the scene. Even Go-Go looked pleased.

"Well, you got what you wanted."

Hiro was vehement. He turned his head to Go-Go, gesticulating with a scrunched face.

"Yeah, but not with Krei, he's so…"

He waved his hands, rotating them twice before he found the exact word.

"…dignified."

"Not to mention he blackmailed us just two minutes ago," added Sora, aiming his left thumb to the door. "If he blows the whistle on your aunt, you can kiss your superhero career and your brother's legacy goodbye."

Hiro hated the sound of that.

Fred mentally agreed that they had to do something to keep Krei from exposing their identities to her, but none of them knew how.

And yet, Hiro was still fuming when he took the trolley home. By 6:55, he was in the almost low-populated café with crossed arms and pacing back and forth while Baymax watched him, multitasking with his way of stroking Mochi's fur with his right hand as the cat lay curled up in his arms. Donald, was sipping on a strawberry scone, Goofy was eating blueberry ice cream and Sora looked worried for the poor boy as Hiro muttered to himself.

"What does she see in that fucking snob? He almost took my microbots last year, upset Callaghan for killing his daughter and got himself killed because of it!"

He stopped before realizing…

"Yet that was the original Krei, the clone is just as worse."

"Not everyone is an exact replica, whether they be clones or robots. My Nobody Roxas didn't look a thing like me…well, except for the spiky hair, which was blonde by the way."

By the time Hiro's position had directly obscured the door, three knocks were heard and Hiro went to open it up, revealing Krei, grinning like a geek and holding in his right hand what appeared to be a bouquet of eight pink tulips. Mochi, whose detection skills were comparable to that of a dog's, growled at Krei with a glare that told the clone businessman that he was threatening to claw his eyes out. But Krei took this with a grain of salt and proceeded to step into the house.

"Hiro, this is the third time I have seen you today."

Hiro was not going to give the man who almost purloined his microbots and ruined Callaghan's life the civil tongue. Likewise, he crossed his arms and shook his head negatively as he talked.

"But it's not the charm."

"I think it is, your aunt has found the man of her dreams. I don't know what your…oldest would say if he was here, but I think he would have a more mature tongue compared to yours."

And as he walked further into the room after ruffling Hiro's hair with his right hand, Hiro fumed over the clone's perception of his brother approving of this relationship.

"Is your aunt ready?"

"She is."

It was obvious that those words did not come Hiro's mouth, let alone any of the other males in the room.

It came from Cass herself.

And there she was, dressed in a low-cut cocktail dress colored in plum with black slippers, her black pocketbook hanging from the precipice of her left arm. When she entered the room, it was like a sexy seductress had cast her spell over every male in the room. Hiro could hardly remember when he (and Tadashi) ever saw her as beautiful as tonight. Goofy gave the human female a wolf whistle, which wads ironic since he was a canine, Donald's eyes widened, Sora was amused by this as well as Mochi and Baymax over to Alistair, telling him.

"Mr. Krei, your heartrate has elevated. Are you feeling well?"

Krei walked past the robot to meet his date.

"Better than well, I'm feeling incredible."

He brought the bouquet into Cass' hands, and she felt the pastel pink petals brushing against her palms. Her fingers clenched them lovingly as her nose took a deep whiff of the scent, and before she could ask what they were, Krei explained for her.

"They are the rarest tulips in the world. They bloom only once every twenty years. They're also very expensive."

Behind him, Hiro stuck his tongue out and gave Krei his left middle finger, which he quickly retracted in case Aunt Cass chided him for using that. Within a second, Krei took his left arm into her right one and asked.

"Shall we?"

The couple took a graceful sweep all the way to the door, but not before Aunt Cass stopped in front of Hiro, giving him the bouquet.

"Hiro, could you put these in water for me?"

Hiro's right hand took the bouquet from Aunt Cass' left and when the door closed with the sound of the ringing bell dying away, he took one furious glare at the tulips before taking a once-over at Aunt Cass walking into Krei's limo through the windows. He didn't care how rare the tulips were, so in a metaphysical battle to contain his fury, his left hand scrunched the petals and compressed them into a crushing pressure. Then with both hands, he twisted the bouquet forwards, then backwards, reaching the exact limit of how far his hands could twist. Through his fingers, some of the petals, the first eight of them, fell to the floor, and Hiro's right hand proceeded to rip the petals out from the stem, which he snapped with both hands four seconds later. Releasing the ruined flowers, his left boot stomped on the bouquet four times, then dug his toes into the floor, left and right by forty degrees eight times. Then, with his footsteps sounding like thunder echoing throughout the city (or the café), Hiro raced up to his room and all Sora could hear were the moans and bawls of a boy whose aunt was going to be lost to him.

Heading upstairs some three minutes later, Sora sat himself down on Hiro's bed. Tears were soaking his pillow from the poor genius who lamented his weakness…preventing his loved ones for making the biggest mistakes of their lives. Sora, in his own way comfort, skipped right ahead to the question…

"Have you at least thought of a way for them to, you know, break up?"

"No."

Hiro lifted his head from the pillow to aim his eyes at Sora, they looked red, puffy and ready to bleed. He sniffled before he spoke again.

"If they keep this up, Krei will be forcing me to call him Uncle Alistair."

Sora looked doubtful.

"You don't think they'll get married, do you?"

Hiro calculated the mathematics and statistics in seven seconds, which seemed almost inevitable in his head. His voice and his eyesight began to clear up.

"Well, they are of the same age demographic, and they both run a business. But even Tadashi would object to this. In the eleven years that I have been with her, I myself have wondered if we ever needed a man to help her around the house and Tadashi thought of Aunt Cass as a woman who needed to be strong and independent…despite our matchmaking skills that never got off the ground."

Now, suddenly motivated and full of energy, he stood up from the bed and flexed his muscles. Sora smiled to himself, under the belief that his advice had worked.

"We'd better sabotage this date before it's too late."

Sora chuckled.

"Do you realize that you just made a rhyme?"

"It was unintentional, now get Baymax, your friends and let's go."

Mel's personal data and job history were soon discovered by Spaldoni through his own investigation into the online Krei Tech archives…

"How ironic," muttered Texie when she heard the news. "Big Boy brought the original Alistair Krei into the crime family, treated him like a son, and then betrays him. One year later, a close associate of his decides to go solo. Coincidence or irony?"

She was saying this to Ed and Measles, who were lounging in the conference room of Club Ritz. Measles was the first to speak as he stood up in his chair, letting his feet touch the floor.

"I say it's pointless. If the original hadn't gone as far as cloning himself, all of our problems would have been solved."

Texie smiled at his intelligence.

"Exactly, if Big Boy wanted some fool killed, he'd expected him to stay that way."

Ed rebutted the matter with his own words.

"But Spaldoni expressly said that he kept the Apparatus in balance."

"I know," Texie gestured him to remain calm. "But, as I said before, since he is already facing retribution for his other self's sins, what we need now is getting his technology and his territory without his help and without killing him."

She turned her head, finding the right man suitable for pulling off the job.

"And if I were you, Measles, I would pray for Krei's good health and that we get ahold of one of his 'Buddy-Bots'."

Measles nodded his head yes, slowly at first, then faster as he was enticed by the idea, letting it all go into his head.

"Thank you, Miss Garcia. I won't let you down!"

And Texie smiled mutually in return before things went serious for the both of them.

"Good. Cause remember…I'm counting on you to make sure we get at least one piece of his assets before we go raiding into his kitchen."

The two men looked at each from opposing sides of the table before she answered.

"That was a metaphor."

"Ooooh," the young men understood this in unison.

With that little joke understood by all, Texie turned counterclockwise out the door and down the stairs. The thought of raiding a kitchen (literally) was enough to make her feel hungry.

But in all the time it took for Hiro, Donald, Baymax, Goofy and Sora to reach the restaurant, the four "nerds" of Big Hero 6 were about to have their work cut out for them when the Buddy-Guard had been activated. In their usual laboratory at the robotics lab, Honey could not help but gush over Krei Tech's latest product.

"You know? I think it's cute."

Go-Go shook her head with blasé in her voice.

"Sure for a goddamn lethal weapon, it has it's sore spots."

She could well remember that horrible moment of Baymax turning into a mean killing machine on their first mission, but the prolonging was cut short by Wasabi.

"You and Hiro and right: it will take more than a glitch to screw up it's programming."

His hands took two pairs of tongs and he drove them into the exposed core, hoping to find the source. But Go-Go shook her head again and gazed left and right before she remembered that their leader was having plans of his own.

"I wonder how Hiro's handling the break-up plan?"

"Funny you should mention that," Honey Lemon pulled out her iPhone. "He just texted me, saying that he, Baymax and the three Keybladers were following them. I think they may be on route?"

Go-Go's left eyebrow rose.

"Where?"

"Probably some fancy restaurant."

"Hopefully not Club Ritz," muttered Wasabi as he worked. "I have a sneaking suspicion that that Texie woman may be up to something. I could see it in her eyes when we went to her to rescue Hiro and Fred from Yama."

By that second, Fred burst through the door, holding in his right hand three white paper bags of Noodle Burger sustenance with the logo in the middle. His left palm tediously balanced a tray of four cups of Coke Zero, with a straw already placed in each cup.

"Who's up for a Noodle Burger break?!"

Honey smiled at this, smacking her lips.

"I am!"

Go-Go couldn't care anymore and Wasabi's reliance on important matters prevented him from driving his eyes away on the core of the Buddy-Guard which fizzed and sparked every six seconds or so. But still, he asked.

"Did you bring napkins?"

"Course! They're in the bags."

He placed the tray of sodas down on the table, about eighteen inches away from Wasabi's right elbow.

"Not a good place to do that."

Before Fred could ask for a repeat as he searched for the napkins in the first bag he set down, his left elbow made contact with the cups and pushed the whole tray over, spilling the brown contents onto the Buddy-Guard that bought a larger amount of purple static electricity around it. Wasabi dropped his jaw and produced a glare of anger at Fred before he noticed the Buddy-Guard floating upwards while correcting its rotation, about fifteen feet above the floor.

Its maglev hands floated out and so did the scarlet eye, which was seen by all. It could see Honey, Go-Go, Fred and Wasabi outlined in green before the sound of a oniums beep turned the vision blood red.

"That's why…" said Go-Go with her head cocked to the right by six degrees.

Before she could find the rest of the answer, the drone faded into round and tube-shaped distortions. Fred, finishing his cup during all that time, guessed the answer.

"How cool. I think it wants to play hide and seek."

And what he felt next, was a hard shot of extreme burns from the red laser that fired from the eye. As the liquid damage to the core had weakened the lasers to a non-lethal level, it stunned Fred to floor, leaving him in an ounce of groans. A second later, he struggled to his feet as Go-Go stated.

"I disagree."

She turned he head over her right shoulder, her own guard refusing to let her down before she too was shot to the floor by the laser that fired a poor but harmful shot towards her spine. The area between Honey's breasts, was also a tangible target for a shot. Grimacing, Honey fell to the floor with her stomach landing on Go-Go's rear end.

Fred's eyes looked sharp for any distortion as his left hand wielded the only weapon he had, one of Wasabi's tongs. He gave the drone a stage whisper.

"Show yourself."

And it did, but disappeared again while delivering another shot to Fred's chest, driving him back to the floor on his spine. This was followed by another shot, aimed directly at Wasabi's neck collar. He jolted for two split seconds before he fell to the floor on his chest, crawling his way under the table to join the others in their almost-immediate recovery.

"How can we fight what we can't see?"

Fred was quick to respond to Wasabi's worries; his right hand reached for the middle bag on the table, dragged it under with them and his left hand reached inside to retrieve three packets of ketchup. His answer was simply.

"Ketchup will work!"

Using his teeth to carefully open them up, Fred shot himself from the table and flung his arms up and down wildly twenty times by which every last drop of the substance had let the packets. Half of them stained the books and jars that proved themselves to useful to be blemished by a natural substance on the outside. Honey, hiding behind the light turquoise colored drawers, saw five stains adorning the invisible drone, one on the top, a small splat on the back, two middle sized ones on each side, and a larger one dripping a couple of drops on the bottom. It was easily distinguishable.

"Fred, it worked!"

After shouting this, Honey's left hand took the burgundy book binder that she had used to record some of her works, leaned it back and smacked the droid so hard, that it flew towards the wall on the other side, completely damaged beyond repair, enforced by this with Go-Go kicking at it with her right foot four times over.

Wasabi smiled over their victory as he taunted the dead bot.

"How do you like us now, 'Buddy'?"

Then the realization came to him.

"You know, I think that when Fred spilled his drink, it somewhat corrupted the bot's hive system, making us think we were it's enemies."

Honey narrowed her eyes and straighten her glasses with her right hand.

"Krei must never sell them. Someone could get _killed_."

But in such cases as this discovery, it was wise to inform the authority of Detective Dick Tracy about the lethal nature of these robots. Perhaps if Clone Krei was honest enough, he would never endure in such ventures again.

It seemed insensitive from Hiro's perspective that his aunt and semi-ally should have dinner at the Laurel Court restaurant, where his mother and father spent their last meal before their deaths in that collision. It was built in 1907 alongside the Fairmont Hotel and a total seating capacity of 250 people, mostly on the intent of wealthy diners. The Baroque/Rococo style of interior was beautiful with a large round dome of white with dark golden designs adorning the bottom, stood majesty above the center of the dining hall.

Hiro, having followed Krei's limo via Sora and his Keyblade Glider (Baymax rolled behind them in his luggage), watched Aunt Cass and Krei walk out of the right-hand side door to a line of twenty-five couples. Cass, assuming it would take too long, asked Krei.

"I hope you have a reservation for this."

Krei smiled romantically at her and uttered.

"I already have. Then again, I don't need one."

The maître d'hôtel, who wore a black suit with a bowtie, white shirt, brown hair with a twirled moustache, regretted to inform the couple in black and white already in front of him.

"It seems we have an opening for two in…"

His eyes followed Krei and Cass inside.

"Six hours."

Leaving the couple and all others in the line without any hope of getting in, the man went inside and escorted Krei and Cass to their table.

Even with him preoccupied, Hiro knew better to be sneaky.

"We'll have to try the back," he whispered to Baymax and Sora.

They took an alleyway down on the right-hand side of the building that served as a secure passage to the kitchen. Hiro, while learning more about his parents around the time he was seven years old, was given a tour of the place with Aunt Cass and Tadashi by his side. He could almost remember that buzz-call button that was stationed on the left-hand side of the door. It was Baymax who pressed it and Sora, leaning from the robot's right shoulder, whispered.

"Let me do the talking."

The head chef, a stout fellow with dirty blond hair, pig-pink coloring on his nose and sideburns too short to be noticed, came to the door and Sora grinned in the same way he gave Donald and Goofy after their first meeting in Traverse Town.

"May I help you?"

"Yes, do you know if there are any job openings for a special chef. If you want my references, just call Gusteau's."

This exchange of words lasted long enough for Hiro to sneak into the kitchen while crouching. He paid little mind to the cooks and caterers of both sexes as they worked hastily to prepare the meals. The aroma was making him hungry, but his own priorities came first. He came out through the doors to see his aunt telling sob stories to Krei. While this mostly came from the heart, Hiro assumed that Krei was coaxing her just to get onto her sympathetic side.

"And that's how my brother and sister-in-law died."

She wiped away the tears with a napkin in her right hand and her voice began to break even more.

"Afterwards, we gave the house away to a nice family and Judge Garrity saw to it that I would have guardianship over Hiro and Tadashi, who told me in the hospital that before Tomeo and Maemi died, he promised them that he would watch over him…Hiro, I mean. Hell, I didn't get out much for three weeks. I hardly found any energy to work, I-"

Before she could say anymore, Krei gently rested his left hand over her right and when her eyes met his it was a sign that he had a heart.

"I understand Cass. Several of my best employees have died under unfortunate circumstances. I would know how it feels to be in your shoes. But enough remorse, what foods do you often serve at your little café?"

Aunt Cass perked up her emotions to a chipper, yet anxious one.

"I serve chicken fingers, but they don't cost as much as this menu suggests."

She opened up the velvet red menu lying in front of her opened it up. The cost was approximately $69.68. Then her eyes dawned upon a second entry with a cost of $49.53.

"I think the tuna looks good."

Black Pearl would often spend her nights eating at this restaurant, but she never expected to see the door opening by itself, which also caught the maître d's attention. Both mentally assumed that it was just the wind. Her table was on the far left away from Krei and Cass and she watched them incredulously while waiting for Texie, who had instructed her to meet her in the ladies' room. Second thoughts on the door opening by itself made her assume that Texie had slipped in unnoticed and that served as he cue to head to the restroom. Taking one last glance at Krei and Cass, she excused a pair of passing waiters and entered the door into the ladies, finding the first stall which had a closed door and closed toilet seat. She sat down, took in three seconds of silence, then asked.

"Don't you think it feels weird meeting here?"

Texie's voice came from her left, leaving a small echo as she spoke.

"We can't be seen together, especially not by Krei or anyone else who is not aligned with the Apparatus. He has eyes in all of his establishments as well as his favorite places. Do you know what worth his Buddy-Guards will prove?"

"As perfect weaponry against Krei and Big Hero 6?"

"You're thinking like a modernist, Pearl, if we get his bots, it will be the start of our conquest on Krei Tech and the rest of his establishments, but I suppose they would make some as weapons. Spaldoni told me about the incident in the lab that got four of those scientists killed maybe atomic ray guns are just what we need to make tradition look modern. Since I also care for the safety of San Fransokyo's civilians just as much as anyone else, the option of setting our guns to stun would also make us more humane."

"I don't know about that, but, whatever."

"You should take a closer look at Spladoni's private office. He uses it as a front for his wiretapping operation. Inside his right desk drawer is his right ear phone which over hears the west side of the city while his left hears the east. But to do that you'll need the key from his right vest pocket."

"I understand, but why should I know all this?"

"He'll need an assistant to overhear Big Hero 6 and their enemies and when they strike, as a reminder, we strike as well. Killing this second Krei will only bring chaos, so for now, we need his assets and when the time is right, owning his territory will be like slipping into a fashion store."

A wrap of $2,000 slid from Texie's booth to Pearl's.

"Buy yourself another dinner just to keep yourself out of a risk, Measles is already on his way to Krei Tech HQ to get one of the Buddy Guards. Once we copy it's technology and sell on the black market to other traditionalists in favor of ray guns, we'll be rich enough to build our own army."

"…of…?"

"Abnormal people with atomic ray guns."

Taking the money into her right hand, Black Pearl returned her seat while Texie stayed behind to contemplate her next move.

Under their table, Hiro could hear his aunt and Krei flattering each other over the art of origami.

"Your interest surprises me. Businessmen in my mind never seem to do any fun things like these."

"Papa would never let me fold anything other than a fifty-dollar bill."

Krei pulled out such a dollar bill from his right vest pocket, folded it on both sides and from Cass could see, he was folding it into an origami that looked like a swan with her neck looking longer than usual. It made Aunt Cass feel even more flattered and with her carefully observing the artwork, she knew that instead of a swan, it was…

"A crane!"

Another idea crossed her mind.

"Check this out."

Her hands folded left and right, stretched the paper, made some little bents and what she had made was a triumphant looking figure of Krei with his hands on his hips and his head looking straight up. Krei looked like he was about to burst into tears, but he held them back, keeping his long-nurtured and professional stature in check while he replied.

"It's me!" he winced, putting his left hand on his heart. "And I am literally made of money! Just like in my dreams…I will treasure it forever."

Cass handed the dollar made figure of Krei over to the man himself and hugged it like a teddy bear, giving Aunt Cass those sloe eyes he had given Hiro moments before Tadashi's murder.

Hiro himself, looked for the waiter who was due to arrive with the couple's dinner. And sure enough, and young man with flaxen blonde hair came, carrying a dish of two sweet potatoes in his left hand. Hiro stuck his right foot out and down he fell onto his chin, the poor potatoes landing on Krei's vanilla cream shirt and sliding all the way down his suit. His demeanor went from refined to rough.

"How dare you…"

The poor garcon looked up at him with fearful eyes.

"My apologies, Mr. Krei."

Krei's inner conscious directed his eyes to Cass who just sat there, shocked at first before smiling. Inside, she was telling him to calm down and he did.

"Apology accepted."

He handed him another twenty-dollar bill as he set the figure of himself down.

"Here's twenty bucks, go buy yourself some chicken fingers."

The man, unsure of what to say or think, walked away from the table. Aunt Cass, seeing how human he was, verbally returned the man's compliment.

"That was very sweet of you."

Then she fixated her eyes on the jacket.

"But you should wash that stain off."

As soon as Krei noticed this, Hiro murmured to himself.

"Sorry about that, Uncle Alistair."

He watched him depart into the men's room, where about a half-minute later, he was wiping the blazer with a white towel in his right hand over the stain. It proved less than difficult, for the smudge left behind by the potatoes left traces of orange around the area. Krei mentally assured himself from now on that he would not have any of his cream shirts discolored, his blazers being able to hide the stain given the dark nature of their indigo color as well as the obvious route of dry cleaning.

Then came a voice, he thought he would never have to hear again.

"Surprise, asshole."

From the fading curtains invisibility came Mel, smiling unpleasantly. In fact, it was so unpleasant that Krei almost freaked out.

"Never do that again," his eyes narrowed to the former employee in the mirror.

"Of course, I won't," the reflection's voice went comedically sinister. "Because I'll be needing your key card, Alistair."

As if a simple threat were not enough, Mel was carrying a yard of rope that was looped into a circle.

Two minutes passed and Aunt Cass looked up from her meal to see her date looking about, left and right, before his name could be heard.

"Alistair?"

Krei looked back at her, confused.

"You certainly cleaned up nice."

The man's tongue went out of control.

"Yeah, uh…something came up at the office. I gotta go."

Aunt Cass placed her hands on her hips. She had seen enough romantic movies to know what a rapid tongue and those words meant.

"Are you ditching me?"

Krei's voice sounded a bit lighter than regular.

"Yes, so I have to go right now."

He left, but not without a suspicious Aunt Cass following after him.

"Can't you at least give me a ride home? And what happened to your voice?"

Hiro oversaw this from under the table. He spoke into the tiny microphone lodged into his right ear.

"Baymax, Sora; Krei and Aunt Cass are leaving, but Krei seems to be acting weird."

Baymax watched the couple leave outside and Sora, whom the head chef felt he had all the hired help he needed, reported back to him, talking through his headband in the same ear.

"And they're just about leaving."

Baymax's eyes zoomed in on the nervous businessman. He scanned the man before the image of a DNA structure and red "X" seemed to confirm that this was a different person bearing Krei's exterior.

"Mr. Krei appears normal but his DNA has changed."

This seemed to make Hiro even more suspicious, and his internal reconstruction of Krei's tracks rewound his mind back to witnessing the businessman enter the men's room. Surely something had to have happened in there.

When he came in, he heard muffled shouts, that originated from the third middle stall just after the door opened and closed. After Hiro had opened it, out came a tilting Krei, bound and gagged by strong ropes and a grey sash.

"He stole my wallet!" cried the man after Hiro removed the sash with his right hand. "It had my ID and coupons in it."

"Who?"

"Dr. Mel Myer. He's the real genius behind the Buddy-Guards."

"Could it be that it was him?"

Hiro's mouth went dry. The memory of losing Tadashi was playing on a loop as he grew worried for Aunt Cass' safety. Now he was regretting his choice and his dislike for Krei was growing stronger than ever. But with calm breaths, he elevated his hatred down to a sane level and spoke into the ear phone.

"Sora, Aunt Cass has been kidnapped."

"That confirms my observations," replied the voice of Baymax from the other line.

Hiro then removed the ropes and escorted Krei onto the rear of Sora's Keyblade Glider, holding onto each other's waists as they sped after the limo, with Donald and Goofy on the wings and Baymax rolling after them in his luggage. Hiro shouted into earphone over the engine's roar.

"Go-Go! A man impersonating Krei is holding Aunt Cass hostage! Meet me and the others at Krei Tech!"

He signed off for a reply while Sora called Tracy, his face determined.

 _Hold on, Aunt Cass, I am not going to lose you too._

In the limo, with Aunt Cass riding with Mel in the backseat, looked fussy and twerked as she clasped her handbag with both hands, tightly.

"What is so important that you need to go to your office for?"

Mel tried to think of a good excuse.

"It's a surprise."

Aunt Cass backed away by two inches.

"I'm not a fan of surprises."

Trying to be friendly, the faux Krei wrapped his right hand around her shoulders.

"Not even surprise parties?" he asked seductively.

He fluttered his eyelashes, hoping for a positive response.

"I guess."

After removing his arm to make the hand gestures of envisionment, he spread them out as he described.

"Imagine being in the dark waiting for your co-workers to pop up. But wouldn't it be great if you were invisible just for the sake of it being part of an _ultimate_ surprise party?"

Aunt Cass' left hand pushed her body to the door by another two inches, almost preparing herself to jump out and cry for help.

"Are you feeling okay?"

Mel relaxed himself.

"Yes, I am."

Then he sat properly, with his body facing front.

"I hope you will pardon me for that, but I get really excited sometimes."

Cass returned to her previous position.

"Like surprise parties."

"Yeah! I mean, it's more of a rich person thing. Something you wouldn't understand."

Cass looked into his face; the face of a lonely, misunderstood man.

"You're right about that," she mumbled.

Measles hid himself behind a round bush as soon as he saw the approaching limo. He narrowed his eyes at the sight of Krei leaving the passenger seat into the front office. There he came across the chubby security guard, Lex, sitting with his legs up on the desk playing _Mario Kart DS_. Noticing his employer, he immediately stood up, placing the DS behind his back.

"Mr. Krei!" he beamed. "Working late?"

"Yes…I am."

Off he walked, leaving Lex to resume his race through the Waluigi Pinball track.

With the identification card in his right hand, Mel opened up the middle drawer in Krei's office to reclaim his rightful property and creation. He beamed with victory.

"Check and mate…"

He whispered this before his lips formed a circle.

"SURPRISE!"

Right there in front of him, Sora, Dick Tracy, Krei, the two animals and the entirety of Big Hero 6, dressed in their suits, were obstructing his path to the door. Krei, extending his right arm forwards as he walked up to him, tried to keep a civil tone.

"Mel, this will all be good for the both of us if you just give me the plans."

Holding the folder in both hands defensively, the false Krei backed himself to the windows.

"All right, you win. But what you should know is that you are helping a man who's surprise party invention will a less, _festal_ purpose."

But the real Krei took it with own hands once Mel's limit had been reached.

"It is called, good business."

Go-Go crossed her arms at this.

"Call them whatever you want, you are not going to sell those drones. They have become lethal."

"If they get wet," added Honey. "Their programming scrambles and they will attack anybody that thinks is their enemy."

The real Krei (or clone) took his longest ten second glance at the impatient faces of the team, along with Tracy giving him that "you're in deep shit" glare while Sora, Donald and Goofy tried to remain neutral, but it was hard to mask their outrage.

At that last second being up, Krei said.

"Fine, I will delay shipping until further notice. It will give the drones enough time to be fixed."

Satisfied, Mel removed the towel that copied his employer's face. For the first time since he had been hired, he looked happy and complacent with his world.

"That was the best surprise I ever had."

But Krei had no intention of giving up.

"Well, how's this for a surprise?!"

Activating the enter key on the console of his desk with his right index finger, four Buddy-Guards came out of their respectively grey boxes. The first two that flanked the rear detected Mel running off to the left and hiding behind Fredzilla.

"Keep those eyes away from me!"

His grip on Fred's arms was so ticklish that it led an accidental activation of the flamethrower, heading past the two drones and penetrating the sprinkler that was directly above the desk. It sprayed large drops of water that had no flames in sight, soaking Sora's hair and Donald's feathers.

" _Ah, shit,_ " muttered Wasabi in Swahili.

Sure enough, the eyes turned red, floating towards the well-prepared team. The invisibility cloaking turned on and Tracy took out his Tommy gun attached to the leather strap on his torso, ready to fire.

"What can we do?" asked Fred, seemingly forgetting the flamethrower, if not preventing himself from causing too much damage. "I don't have any ketchup."

"I'm on it," replied Honey.

Yet before the right concoctions could be fully made, the laser from the drone on the right fired a shot that drove her to the floor. It wrapped her bodice with it's black cables two seconds after.

"Woman down!"

When Go-Go rushed to remove the cables with her sharpened fingernails, the same drone fired a direct hit at her chest plate and shot her to the window, wrapping her with the same cables as soon as her body began descending to the floor.

After Hiro ducked under another laser, Wasabi jumped into the fray along with Goofy. The green clad hero excused Krei from the desk as he typed.

"I should be able to hack into the operating system so that it will make the drones visible!"

"And I'll cover for ya!" the dog knight bellowed as his shield, held in both hands, hovered vertically above Wasabi.

Everyone else, tried to cover for Wasabi should Goofy fall.

Mel ducked to the floor, watching the heroes flank Goofy: Sora, Donald, Fredzilla and Hiro on his right, Tracy on the left. As for Krei, he decided that now was the time to leave.

"Looks like you guys have got everything under control, so I'll just gooooo!"

The laser out of nowhere fired at him, intent on penetrating into his heart, which it did not do, given the weak condition.

"Nice one, drone," Fred whispered, hoping it wouldn't hear.

But it did, and after the red beam pushed him back to the shelf, he was wrapped in the black titanium cables.

"Now that was a bad one!"

And pretty soon, Wasabi had fallen victim to the same method. With his arms caught in the rope, he had one option left.

 _Typing with your chin isn't easy._

He was doing just that, and then a yellow window with the words warp mode came on. His intention had been accomplished.

"I think I got it!"

Sure enough, the drones reappeared, and the first thing Sora did was use his Keyblade as an impromptu baseball bat. He reached it back over his left shoulder and swung a curve. With the teeth slamming into the back of the first one in the front, it flew over the desk and smashed through the window, sprawling out of control the ground in front of a waiting Measles. He immediately and correctly assumed that this had to be one of the Buddy-Guards.

"I hope Miss Texie will be able to have someone fix this," he muttered as he ran back to the club, carrying the damaged drone under his right arm.

Back in the office, things seemed to turn weird on Wasabi's part. An additional input on the binary code, a few numbers and digits next to the proper code, caused the bots to turn themselves into the heads of a pissed off Krei. Baymax threw a right jab at the first one which flew over Mel while another one fired it's laser from both eyes (a neat trick installed by Mel personally) at Hiro followed by the cables shot from the mouths wraping around his torso. He fell the floor face first just as Sora, Baymax following him, underwent the same treatment.

Mel, thinking that his little joke by incorporating an image of Krei's mug of anger into the code as some sort of an easter egg had gone too far, and with Tracy's bullets missing each of the too-fast probes, he sprinted out of the office, the Buddy-Guards following after him. Hiro mentally calculated where he would run to next and the most-likely result was all too shocking.

" _Kuso!_ He's leading them right to Aunt Cass!"

Speaking of Aunt Cass, she was safely in the limo, sharing with Daniel, the chauffer, pictures of her beloved calico on her iPhone, some of them including Hiro and Tadashi.

"Here's Mochi when we first bought him."

Daniel looked over at the digital photograph of the younger Hiro proudly holding baby Mochi on the day he came to live with the Hamadas. Yet before they could go any further, he was fatally shot from behind by the laser of the Krei heads. The shot drove straight into the back of his neck, providing enough heat to drill a hole into the throat. Thankfully, the laser congealed the blood, but Aunt Cass shrunk herself back into her seat, her fears tensed by the panicking Mel who got in from the left-hand side door, ordering her frantically.

"Drive! DRIVE! _**DRIVE!**_ "

Seeing the heads behind him, Cass rushed to the front, pulled Daniel's corpse onto the passenger seat with her right hand and sat down in his seat to put her safety belt on. Prepared, she slammed her right foot down on the gas pedal and limousine screeched away.

But even Buddy-Guards were designed to follow the speed of cars with their streamlined exterior. Yet ahead of them, Aunt Cass asked the imposter.

"Who are you and why are we being chased by disembodied Alistair heads?"

She kept her eyes on the road as she said this, with only a short-second glance to her sole passenger.

"It's a long story and you probably will not like it."

Curving to the left on Montgomery Street, Cass looked at the six heads through the right door mirror and felt like she had made a big mistake.

 _And this is why I don't go dating, especially with wealthy entrepreneurs._

In the office, Wasabi had managed to activate his plasma blades and even though he was still tied to the chair, he could use it to free the others. First, he rolled his way over to Hiro, who rolled himself over to the left blade and he could smell the cables burning as he progressed further.

" _Arigato,_ Wasabi!" he cried once he was free.

Then after freeing Wasabi himself, Baymax and Sora with a knife made of his own microbots, they were off to the find the limo. Baymax immediately knew what he had to do and the grid appeared in his visor.

"Scanning for Aunt Cass."

Then after six seconds..

"Scan complete."

With the heads still hot on their tail, Aunt Cass made another sharp left onto Battery Street before crossing over California Street.

"HANG ON, SIR!" she shouted to her scared-to-death passenger.

With the turn onto Battery Street complete, two of the drones crashed into a nearby deli on the right hand side, sending downwards a small debris of loose bricks that landed onto the sidewalk. Mel, however, was trying to reason with his unexpected driver.

"I know things are weird with me impersonating your date, but being involved in this chase brings me something that-OHMYFUCKINGGODLOOKOUT!"

He aimed his left index finger at the rear of jet black moving van coming into view. Cass immediately swerved to the left, getting out of avoiding a terrible collision.

"That's very sweet of you," she told him over the nose of the cars that passed. "But I don't think that now is the best time."

Above them, Sora flew to the right of Baymax on his Keyblade Glider. He fired a ball of fire at the Krei head on the right and a sharp icicle at the one on the left. As soon as he caught his first glimpse of Aunt Cass driving the car, he said to Hiro via the speaker.

"I'd rather you leave this to me, Hiro. Aunt Cass might see you."

And she did see…Sora.

She waved her right hand at her in a friendly greeting, thought he seemed to be a bit far for her to get a good look at his face. And as she was doing that, the last two drones, which by now had somehow restored themselves to their original form (courtesy of Wasabi's second attempt at hacking into them), were closing in on Hiro's back.

Seeing them, Hiro threw caution to the wind by jumping off of Baymax and onto the Buddy-Guard on the left. Baymax watched Hiro and the Buddy-Guard slowly part from his field of vision and down onto Battery Street. Sora saw this as well and when Baymax laid his feet in front of him, the position of the rockets acting as his brakes, Sora saw this and well and did a 120 to the left, but not before using his Keyblade to deliver a heavy downwards blow to the top of the remaining Buddy-Guard, causing it to spiral out of control as it crashed into the ground.

Hiro, being more versatile with himself (or so what he believed in himself to be), tried to gain control of the Buddy-Guard he was holding onto. His boots touched the roof of a yellow taxi, lifted his legs up at the sight of an oncoming truck (and felt his behind scraping the top) and as he passed under a pair of power lines, the Buddy-Guard soon found it's intelligence. It shot upwards towards the sky, fast enough for Hiro's fingers to slip and soon he was catapulted in a full 360 once the arms pushed forward, booting him from the bot.

He somersaulted all the way over a grey office build that had been used back in the 20s, and by some random form of pure luck, the Buddy-Guard had crossed over to the other side, giving Hiro the opportunity to slam his feet down onto the top of the drone. But gravity is much too strong with the combined forces of their weight and now they were heading down onto the street at a reckless pace. After the drone regained control, Hiro thought it ironic that they should end up straight towards a billboard advertising Krei Tech's laptops, with Krei himself on the left hand side. The drone, now completely out of Hiro's control, crashed smack dab into Krei's profile on the billboard, leaving behind an explosion of light purple smoke and as Hiro thought of what he would say to Tadashi for what would have been the last sixteen seconds of his life, Baymax swooped in like the true hero his brother was and Hiro found himself safely on his back. Sora flew alongside them as the robot spoke.

"Hiro, you are safe."

"Thanks, I already know, now let's go find Aunt Cass."

Aunt Cass, meanwhile, had taken a gander by driving the limo to the very edge of Muirahara Woods. Her mind considered it to the last place in the city that the robots would ever look for them, as it seemed to be quiet and tranquil, and it was her understanding that robots were not too accustomed to nature.

"I think we lost them."

But Mel could soon see that there was still one left.

"Look out!"

Aunt Cass jumped out from the right-hand side of the car as the last Buddy-Guard slammed into the windshield, ran inside the limo and crashed out of the rear window. Aunt Cass and Mel ran for their lives, breaths heaving and legs almost giving themselves away on the rocky ground. After twenty-three seconds they had run afoul of a rocky ledge, and given how their minds were functioning at the moment, they saw no way of getting out of this situation. Mel, then decided that if he were to be killed by his own creation, he finally take this chance to say:

"Miss, in case we die, I just want you to know that my name is Mel. Mel Myers."

He held out his left hand, but Aunt Cass, knowing better, could only care less.

 _Mel, Schmel, at least I'll get to see Tadashi again._

But she didn't have to, for at that moment, the sound of a bullet rocketing out of a gun, followed two more, then five. Riddled with holes, the Buddy-Guard began to jolt and convulse and turning on it's right end, it fell to the ground in an explosion of orange. Aunt Cass looked up to their savior in black and red.

"Who are you?"

"The Shadow…"

And he left in a curtain of darkness, his voice echoing an eight second trail.

When Tracy and the Crimestoppers arrived at the scene with Krei taking shotgun in his Crown Victoria (Cass had called them with her cell phone), Mel pointed his right index finger at his employer and shouted.

"Why are you with him? He's the one you want!"

"Technically," Krei said, smoothly and calmly. "It was your invention, so I would like to press my charges against you for attempted murder, illegal impersonation, minor counts of kidnapping and the production of lethal robots among others."

Tracy looked at the two men, avoiding an impasse when he asked.

"Are you sure about this?"

"Yes. I personally recommend throwing the book at him, Detective Tracy."

Aunt Cass suddenly become all too protective.

"Really, Alistair? Mel may be a creepy surprise party weirdo, but he told me why he did all of this."

She paused dramatically.

"You used him."

Krei gave her that sly, vindictive smile.

"Cass, you are a sweet person, but this son of bitch almost tried to kill me, so I am still pressing charges against him."

He turned to Tracy with daggers in his eyes.

"And now Detective Tracy, book him and cook him, NOW!"

Tracy wasn't too friendly with people of the demanding sort, but he kept a civil attitude and pulled the handcuffs out.

"Hands behind your back," he ordered Mel.

"You can't send me to prison," Mel resisted the urge to escape. "I heard the food is terrible there. Can't we just settle this in court like civilized beings?"

"We will," Tracy nodded as the cuffs were completely slapped onto the inventor. "After you behave well."

Once he had gotten Mel inside the back of his car, Mel himself looked up at Aunt Cass with pleading eyes.

"Will you at least visit me in prison?"

Aunt Cass shook her head.

"Probably not, I have had enough dates for one night, maybe even to last me a lifetime."

"Can I write to you?"

She thought it over in a second.

"Sure."

Mel was elated to have found at least _somebody_ to love him even as the car backed down onto the main road. Then, when the sirens died away, she spoke to Krei.

"You know, I think Hiro might have had a point about you."

"About what?"

Aunt Cass narrowed her eyes.

"How odious you are. You used Mel, your original self almost stole my nephew's microbots and from I gathered, he ruined someone else's life."

Krei's face went friendly.

"As a clone, I can assure you that _this_ is a better me. And besides, I think Hiro could another _supportive_ male around the house, especially after what had happened to your other nephew."

She lightly slapped his right cheek hard with her right hand, feeling insulted.

"Don't you dare try to speak his name! Baymax is more of a Tadashi clone than you will ever be."

Krei's right fingertips smoothed the area of the slap, and he was beginning to remember the reason why his original self never married. He was too preoccupied with his business and should he bare any children, he would be faced with one of the most common and inexhaustible questions a child would ask his workaholic parent.

"When can we do something fun, Daddy?"

Or…

"When are you coming home, Dad?"

Or….

"Father, can we go to the movies or something?"

That was a responsibility that was too much to bear, even for a man like Alistair Krei. At least he was courteous enough to give Aunt Cass a ride home where Hiro was already asleep.

Back at the Club Ritz's dining hall, after the last patron had left the premises, Texie and Black Pearl discussed other strategies relating to their plan. There was much talk between them about hiring other traditionalists when Measles came in with the Buddy-Guard. With her right hand resting by her cheek on that side, she spoke to him.

"Did you get what I asked for?"

"I did."

And he gently placed the damaged bot on the table. Texie looked unimpressed.

"And that's all? 'Cause if you want to say 'I want out' because of a broken robot, then no."

Measles breathed in.

"You mean you can have somebody fix it?"

"I am rich, people of the right kind would love to see how one of Fake Krei's inventions work."

She turned to the stage, staring into her own thoughts.

"You know, I am wondering who the real asshole of today was: Krei or the inventor who made those things."

"I say it's Krei," Black Pearl muttered. "After what you told me about him, the original him, I should say it makes sense."

Texie turned her head back to face her.

"Maybe, but we may never know."

"I believe you, Texie."

"Believe it or not, that drone still needs to prove it's worth as to giving us laser guns."

She turned her back to them and walked upstairs to rest.

"So how did it go?" Hiro asked his aunt the next morning at the breakfast table.

"Terrible," was all she had to say.

After she went outside the clean the windows, Hiro went upstairs to clean the insides as well and when he was finished, he sat on his bed, speaking to Sora and Baymax who said.

"Will you find another date for Aunt Cass?"

"Or?" asked Sora, tittering on the edge of being virtuous. "Will you let her live her own life."

Hiro turned to Sora, nodding as he said.

"I may have to agree with you, Sora. Tadashi and I had both agreed at one point that her personal life is her own business. I don't even care if she finds out I'm still a superhero, but a promise is a promise. And I intend to keep it."

And that's exactly what he did.


	9. The Impatient Patient

It was a dark and foggy night, and through the heavy mists was a mega yacht travelling at the arrogant speed of 50 knots. The yacht was known as _Kreifisher_ and her hull was about 153 feet long, equipped with a library, a pantry, a laboratory, a computer room, among others. Onboard was the clone of Alistair Krei, looking through a pair of black, high-tech binoculars. The yacht stopped over a flat area of water that detected by a white dot on Krei's iPhone map app.

"All right, we are here, now what do we do?"

Alicia popped up behind him, nearly causing Krei to drop the binoculars when she asked.

"We wait for someone or something?"

Krei looked over his left shoulder and turned a 120 in that direction. His eyes and his mouth were feral with anger.

"Don't do that again!"

Alicia could not help but giggle.

"Trying to make a soliloquy?"

"No, I was talking to myself."

His tone was strict and firm before his iPhone began to ring. He picked it up in his left hand and spoke into it.

"This is Krei."

The caller's voice was deep, almost likely to be man's, but it was probably done that way through a voice disguise device.

"I see you have reached the drop point."

Krei lowered his voice, reflecting his unobtrusive nature and forced feelings.

"Couldn't we have done this in the office?"

"It would have been too suspicious. I prefer to transfer the fault."

"Then how will you deliver it? This is a staggering large amount of cash."

"Of course, why else would it be the winning bid? Good bye, sir."

"Good bye."

They hung up at the same time.

Alicia asked.

"Do we still wait?"

But what came next was a heavy sign of danger.

It was a small torpedo, with a red top heading straight to the stern where they were.

"HIT THE DECK!" screamed Krei, hiding his eyes away from the torpedo as he ducked down.

He waited a whole minute, then twenty seconds more, and finally he found out that there was no explosion. That something had to have happened, whether it be some form of interference or the loss of fuel on the torpedo's speed that had brought it to a stop. Krei slowly lifted himself up, placed his hands on the railing and looked down at the stationary torpedo, floating there without a hint of danger.

A hatch, located in the middle, opened up to reveal an extendable, mechanical arm made of the strongest steel with two pincers. It expanded all the way up to Krei's nose, holding onto a four-inch chip that was colored light blue and had an indigo square in the center against the electric lines that made the chip operable.

Krei took it in his right hand, between his index and thumb and chuckled triumphantly.

"It's good to win," he sneered.

Such a moment was perfectly caught on a monitor with the camera installed in the yacht's hull. Watching it were two men and a young woman who bore black armor and blood colored jetpacks. Dark orange lines filled the edges and corners of the armor and boots and they also wore fingerless gauntlets, grey undergarments beneath the armor, black belts of silver pouches and sunset red glasses with black riding bow temples.

A variation of the Bonsai Bombers known as the Mad Jacks.

Their leader, whose name was Gregory Davis, nodded with his own reply at the captures screen of Krei's soon-to-be-short-lived elation.

"I could not agree more."

Greg, whose hair was blonde with a short beard around the mouth, shook his right hand with the left hand of the sole female member Jacqueline, whose codename was Whiplash, while the muscular Afro, Ben, codenamed Brute, gave him a friendly punch on the right shoulder.

Together, the three mercenaries, specializing in aerial assaults, sabotage and espionage, activated their rockets and took to the skies, but not before Greg (or Gunsmith as he preferred to be called) made the verbal signal.

"Let's fly!"

The rockets roared, their boots left the ground, their bodies felt the wind from their velocity blow against their eyes protected by the goggles.

Yet at that of time night, the fog was rolling into the financial district where Sora, Hiro, Baymax and Fred were on night patrol. Baymax used his scanners to help them pass through the fog, even though it looked thin.

"My flight function, is not at full efficiency in suspended water droplets."

Hiro shook his head.

"It's just fog, Baymax, and it's not great for night patrol, or at least when it gets thick."

Fred couldn't help but jump from building to building, humming to the tune of _Power Rangers Wild Force_ as he tried to find his way through the fog. Although he could see well up close, it was the distance that he had to be cautious of, wary that he would risk his life by crashing through glass or falling down into the street below.

Sora, whose Keyblade Armor's visor could see through the fog via the magic that the armor contained, could almost see three moving objects in black and red just 500 feet ahead of them. One from his vantage point could be seen as an imposing figure, while the other two were thin.

"Are you seeing these, Hiro?" he asked.

The grid appeared in front of Baymax's visor as the boy turned his head to the right to face Sora.

"I will scan for heat signatures through the fog."

Inside his suit, Fred prayed to the invisible gods.

"Lord Almighty, please let it be UFOs."

"I detect three humans wearing jet turbines."

Baymax's reply caused Fred to scrunch up his face and deliver his right middle finger to the sky. However, hearing the word "jet turbines", made him think twice before doing such a rude gesture like that again.

The Mad Jacks were armed with special 20-inch-wide bazookas that could fire rockets, grappling hooks, bullets, even liquid. The body of water underneath, was created by the wake of their rockets, and Gunsmith, flying in-between them, shouted.

"Triple-fist!"

They brought all three of their right knuckles together upon contact, like any close members of a group should.

"Jacks rule!"

Saying this in unison, they zoomed over to the stern of _Kreifisher_ , and Gunsmith aimed his right index finger upwards, so he flew over the yacht, while Whiplash took the right, and Brute went on the left.

Krei was already inside bridge with Alicia and Captain Cole, the grey-haired master of Kreifisher who seemed to be quite close to the original Krei. Seeing Gunsmith, the trio gasped in surprise as a huge blast of red laser struck the port hull of the ship and it listed to her starboard side in a 90 degree angle. After it had righted itself, it was soon caught in a whirlpool. A strong whirlpool that made Krei lose sight of Alicia and the captain and slam his nose into the glass porthole of the bridge door, causing it to bleed.

Outside, Whiplash and Brute fired their grappling guns from their own sides, struggling with the force of their rockets to bring them to a stop. When the yacht was completely motionless, save for the bobbing in the water, Gunsmith shouted.

"That's the stuff!"

His smile of elation was dropped into a frown of dismay by the approaching Baymax, his left fist aimed forwards. Gunsmith flew out of harm's way as Baymax looped around the yacht, the tip of his left wing cutting off the titanium cables, forcing Whiplash and Brute away from their positions by twenty feet. Hiro congratulated the robot.

"Nice job, Baymax."

He was soon picking up the trio's radio frequencies on his own intercom.

"Look sharp, Brute!"

"Roger that, Gunsmith. Whiplash, you got this?"

"Right back at ya, Brute."

Sora was on his way to the confrontation when he noticed the female known as Whiplash pushing Hiro from behind with both hands face forward and throwing him into the water. His helmet was air-tight, so Hiro did not need to breath, and when he tried to swim back up using strokes (his hands motioning up and down vertically) Baymax plunged into the water and this gave Mad Jacks enough time to survey the stern like the dogs they were. While Whiplash and Brute gave each other knuckles…

…Sora took his time to approach them, slowly, his hair visible upon removing his helmet, to which the visor was getting fogged up by the mist and he wanted a better view of their new enemy.

"Who are you and what do you want with Alistair Krei?!"

"None of your bullshit, Spiky!"

Brute chuckled deviously as he said this, but Sora did not have to do much, for at that moment, all three were scattered into opposing directions away from the yacht by a rising Baymax, going at 90 miles an hour to the skies above. But when they dived back to prevent Krei from further harm, Hiro felt his left ankle being grabbed by a hand, the right hand of Gunsmith.

"Lesson one, kid…DON'T mess with the Mad Jacks."

"Jacks rule!" chanted Whiplash and Brute through the radio.

Even though he felt the pressure of the climbing altitude starting to take him, Hiro had to ask.

"So I guess your name is Jack."

"My real name is Greg, but I go by Gunsmith cause that's what my father wanted me to be when I grew up."

"Did he expect you to grow up to become a criminal?"

"Nope, he's long dead, man…just like you'll be in the next minute."

Gunsmith's voice, having gone sinister after the pause, did not frighten Hiro at all. In fact, he was thinking to himself.

 _Well, that makes us even._

What he felt afterwards was the feeling you get when you break Isaac Newton's law of gravity: what goes up must come down. Gunsmith had released his fingers from his grip on Hiro's left ankle and when it seemed like the previous process would be repeated, he was safe, lying bridal style in Baymax's arms.

"Are you all right?"

"I'm fine."

And what came next was a very rapid and almost undecipherable "Achoo!".

"You have sneezed," Baymax lifted his right index finger, given that his hearing was advanced enough to hear this. "It may be the first sign of an illness."

In spite of that, Hiro seemed to feel…perfectly fine. He got onto Baymax's back and joined Sora on the stern deck of _Kreifisher_. Baymax scanned the bridge before him.

"There are three occupants inside. One of them is Alistair Krei."

The painfully shy Krei, with his head sticking out of the doorway, pulled the rest of his body outside, greeting the boy, the robot and the Keyblader nervously.

"Welcome aboard to my home away from home."

But Hiro just crossed his arms. His emotions seemed to be negative.

"Am I to assume this is another revenge-plot-on-you scenario?"

Krei's stone was sincere.

"No."

"Illegal business deal?" Sora asked, copying Hiro's stance?

This time, Krei's mood was defensive.

"Are you offending me? As for your question: the answer is no."

"Then what is it?" asked Hiro while trying to be serious.

Krei gesticulated as he walked backwards.

"I was out on the bay enjoying my yacht, when those assholes on jetpacks swooped in."

A blast of laser fire pounded the sea and it was strong enough to tip the yacht to the left at a 50 degree angle, sliding Krei by his feet to the railing and sending him off the yacht. The upper half of his body was submerged at the precise moment Baymax's right hand gripped his left foot and pulled him back on deck. His hair dripping as he landed on the deck floor.

"It is advisable to wear a life-preserver," Baymax warned.

"I'll not that in my memos," Krei nodded.

There was very little time to do so, for the blasts were tilting the yacht left and right from both port and starboard. The Mad Jacks themselves were closing in.

Hiro turned his head to the left by five degrees up to Baymax, a nasty smile plastering his face.

"Baymax…" he spoke in a teasing tone. "I'm thinking…rocket fist."

"And the power of the Kingdom Key combined," added Sora.

Baymax's grid had three red target markers going up and down, trying to keep in synch with the trio's levitating state of balance.

"You may be right, Sora. My rocket fist will have to require precise timing."

When the markers seemed to be in exact predicament with the altitude that lasted a split-second, Hiro shouted.

"Now!"

The rocket fired directly on Gunsmith who was flying in the middle, it slammed into his face and as he tried to find his eyesight, he collided into brute. As for the Keyblade, it was spinning so fast that Whiplash's focus on her male cohorts was enough to distract her from seeing the teeth strike her visor until it was too late. Like her comrades of the opposite sex, she was sprawling violently out of her control. All three flew off into the fog, the droning sounds of their jets dying away until all that could be heard was _Kreifisher's_ engine and Hiro's elated cheer.

"YES! I'LL BET THEY'RE PISSED OFF BY NOW!"

"Don't you mean 'mad'?" asked Sora, hoping to make a more sensible alternative. "'Cause I heard on the intercoms that they call themselves the Mad Jacks."

Hiro remembered himself, and countless times of Tadashi scolding him for using profane words.

At the bay, in Krei's private port of Pier 39, Hiro, Sora and Baymax, stood in front of Krei, Alicia and the Captain. Hiro spoke first.

"Before we give you our blessings Mr. Krei, may we ask as to what you were doing out there."

Krei's pupils looked left and right and he produced a little white lie.

"Nothing of the sort. Good night!"

His left arm wrapped around the right shoulder of Alica and the three departed back into the yacht.

And this time…Hiro's second sneeze was audible. Baymax's right index finger was quick enough to obstruct the sneeze from reaching full competition.

"Hiro, I am detecting an unusually thick mucus in both of your nasal membranes."

Sora widened his eyes. Thick mucus, unusual or not, were something he had experienced on his own.

"You mean he's sick?"

"Positively," explained the trusty robot. "He may have contracted it from the fog or the water."

"But the helmets are air-tight."

"Every creation has a flaw," Hiro pointed out. "Perhaps some of the fog or the temperature of the water has affected my internal system. But if that's the case, I'd better get home. Maybe I'll feel better in the morning."

He climbed onto Baymax's back, Sora hopped on his Glider and the trio flew off to find Fred and get back to the Lucky Cat in time for bed.

Krei, watching them leave from the windows of the bridge, turned over his right shoulder to hear Alicia's voice of reason.

"You could have told them. They did save your life after all."

Krei tsked twice, then glared at Alicia. Viewing her the same way a supervillain viewed an incompetent henchman, or at least one who had his own voice point out his employer's flaws.

"I do not need a fifteen-year-old son of a bitch lecturing me how dangerous that technology is."

Alicia shot him a suspicious glance.

"You don't like taking risks?"

"My original self didn't and neither should I."

His left hand took out the microchip, admiring it in all of it's electronic beauty.

"After I sell this to the highest bidder, I probably won't have to worry about those three asses again."

* * *

And hopefully, neither would Hiro, who woke up the next morning feeling fine, but depressed in a different kind of depression. It had begun to grow inside of him the moment he walked out of the house and had reached it's maximum potential the minute his right hand was touching an apple in the cafeteria. Hiro, felt that the red texture of the fruit would be too much for whatever was heating up his head, so he pressed the right arrow button of blue to the next color of the rainbow: an orange. Had the events of this moment had been a variation of the tale of Adam and Eve, Karmi Iosama, who had been standing right behind him, would have been the God who punished him for the forbidden fruit with the way she asked hysterically.

"Hiro, what in the holy name of the gods did you just do?"

Hiro tried to be friendly.

"It's a thing called changing your mind Karmi. You have to lighten up a little sometimes."

"But you touched the apple and put it back."

Hiro rubbed the orange against his eyelids and his forehead, hoping to relieve himself of the heat.

"There is no comparison between an apple and an orange. They both have their qualities of making you fit and healthy."

Karmi narrowed her eyes.

"Are you even aware of the germs you left on it?"

Hiro turned his head away from her face, looking bored with her interest on microbes.

"No…but I suppose you do."

Karmi's neck was right above the contents of the grey tray she was holding: chips with guacamole, apple juice in a tall canister and a small box of milk, white on the bottom, blue on the top. It seemed apparent, that her experiences with microbes had given her Dick Tracy's experience of detective skills.

"This is September, which means flu season. All it takes is one careless dolt to spread his illness all over the place."

And that, apparently, is what Hiro did. First, his face made him look as though he was having a seizure with his right eye closed and left eye at half-mast. Second, the mucus had begun to burst through his nose before his left hand had a chance to block it, the elbow going up in a wild way. In a freak reaction, Karmi looked petrified as her hands weakened and with the tray in a 30-degree angle, her lunch spilled to the floor, still intact except for the bowl of chips and guacamole. Knowing better than to get whatever illness he had, most possibly influenza, Karmi walked backwards to her table. Her stomach still had time for dinner.

He was still looking bored when he entered the main laboratory.

 _At least it was one sniff._ Hiro thought as he walked past the girls.

Honey Lemon and Go-Go were adjusting some tubes on her chemistry set and had she not been wearing green rubber gloves, she would have caught Hiro's illness. When Honey saw him coming, looking depressed, her mind had a second guess.

"Are you feeling all right? You feel very warm."

As she asked this, she laid her left hand on Hiro's forehead.

Go-Go nodded.

"You look like shit. You should go home and rest up."

But Hiro was reluctant. A trait that had gone into his system since the first time he had gotten sick.

"I can't be that sick…can I?"

Fred, sitting at the table playing _Super Mario World 2_ on an old GameBoy from 2005 with his feet up, took this info with a cocky attitude. Possibly even cockier than Hiro's before he attended the school.

"Of course not, because I _never_ get sick. I have this habit of getting stung by an irradiated bee once a year. My doctor tells me that I will feel a little sting before he puts an injection on me."

Go-Go winced.

"Fred, that's a flu shot."

Under her mouth, she added.

"Dumbass."

Just then, Wasabi came in. Under his right arm was shiny sleek Apple laptop, bought and paid for with money that he had been saving for over five weeks.

" _Jambo_ , all! Care to check out my new laptop?"

"I'd like to see it," said Hiro, walking over.

Wasabi opened the laptop with his right hand while his left balanced the bottom, revealing the sleek blue screen.

"It is a perfect extension of—"

Before he could say "beauty", Hiro's face held that look of seizure. His mouth was open and as he tried hard to turn himself away from shooting whatever substance would be aimed at Wasabi or his precious new laptop, it was too late. The sneeze came, the interior of his nose exploded, his lips blew and three patches of mucus and saliva flew out of his nose and stained the very center of the screen. Wasabi looked down at it with horrible thoughts corroding his head, like wasting his money on a shiny new computer that had remained clean for at least an hour. His epically shocked face of a dropped jaw and eyes wide open turned to anger as he aimed his focus onto Hiro.

"EWW! GROSS!"

Hiro gave him a weak version of a friendly smile.

"Sorry."

Baymax, standing there by the door, had his own concerns that Sora mutually agreed with.

"I have concerns about the sneezing, perhaps it would be best if I took you home, Hiro."

Hiro didn't feel like going home just yet.

"And miss the rest of the day?"

"I always suggested to Tadashi to take a much needed rest during the time he constructed me. It helped to ease any chances of a disease that you currently have."

The very mention of his brother made Hiro feel down more than ever. In fact, at the moment the name entered his ears, he had admitted defeat.

"I guess you're right Baymax."

He entered the safety of Baymax's right arm and together, they walked home.

* * *

Black Pearl, sitting alone in her bathroom's apartment, took a bottle of rose scented perfume and sprayed it around her neck, letting the substance stain the exterior of her neck. What she wore for the day was a sleeveless black dress with matching high heels and her black pearl necklace; clothes that some traditionalists deemed as being too 60s with the way it resembled Audrey Hepburn's signature wardrobe when she starred in _Breakfast at Tiffany's_. After taking a swig of Sprite from a glass, which she claimed to be the perfect substitute for coffee, Black Pearl was finally on her feet and off to the Club Ritz.

There, Texie was at the countertop reading the guest book, working on and observing the signatures of names who had attended the club since she reopened it. The idea currently occupying her head was to have every future customer write their orders down on a special piece of paper and hand over the handwritten notes to forgers. With this information, they could forge checks against the customer's accounts. Ribs, however, suggested a similar idea…with the help of cell phones. He came up to Texie, holding a black Samsung Galaxy in his right hand and a white iPhone in his left.

"You think these could work?"

Texie gave the phones a once-over.

"What is your point?"

"I was thinking we could hack into these accounts by phone. Especially since almost everything is online these days."

Texie shook her head no.

"Traditionalists rarely use the internet. Books and paper are more reliable."

Ribs gave a small shrug.

"So do ebooks."

Before they could go any further into the conversation, the sound of the door swinging open could be heard, from it came Black Pearl, who approached the two.

"Black Pearl," Texie turned the rest of her body forwards. "I was beginning to wonder if Flattop or Crewy Lou were available."

Black Pearl searched her memory.

"I saw those two walking by on my way here, do you want me to get them for you?"

"Yes," Texie nodded. "I might need them for our latest scheme. Something that involves these Mad Jack characters I heard about online."

Ribs raised his right eyebrow.

"Hypocrite much?"

"I did say rarely…as in once a day."

When turned her face back to Black Pearl, she immediately knew the answer.

"I'll just get them for you. And if it makes you feel any better, I tell them about the plan."

After she walked out the door, Ribs said.

"That girl could do wonder if she delivered the signatures for us."

But Texie's mind began to alter, or at least the details of her plot.

"Maybe, but there is something else about the Mad Jacks that fascinates me."

* * *

Meanwhile, other degenerates were hatching plans of their own. Discreet plans.

It was in the lair of Obake and the Light that all of this was happening. The man was standing before his large and sickly green monitor waving his right hand over the red dot of an incoming transmission. The sound of the warning klaxon ended when Gunsmith's head appeared in the circle.

"Status report: At approximately twenty-three hundred hours—"

Obake did not have to guess who the inceptor was, given the left side image of Hiro riding Baymax with Sora flying next to them on their right.

"You were defeated by a child…and a Keyblader."

Whiplash filled the screen from her leader's left.

"The younger kid had a robot."

Followed by Brute from the right.

"Yeah, foo. It was a badass robot with wings and all that shit."

Obake cared less about the details. His raging tone seethed along with his teeth.

"Just. Finish. The damn…job."

"Roger that, Mad Jacks out."

After complying these words, Gunsmith's right index finger obscured most of the camera's view before the screen faded…

…and Obake was mentally painting a big bull's eye on Sora, but mostly Hiro.

"Such a tenacious young man. What will it take to lay you low?"

* * *

Still wearing his shirt and shorts, the barefoot Hiro was lying in bed that night with a box of tissues on his dresser, courtesy of Sora and Baymax. After forty groans and forty sneezes, he fell fast asleep at around 8:03 and began to dream…

 _It was pitch black, as it should always be in the beginning. Hiro could see nothing but black and white, as though he stepped out of the coloring book and into an ancient photograph. Could it be possible that he had entered the world of_ Tetsuo, the Iron Man _? No. He had entered a surrealist world, that he had soon found out once the pasty skinned shape of Breathless Mahoney, wearing her black sequined dress, walked out of the shadows and into his eyes. She had her hands resting on her hips and began to walk seductively back and forth._

" _In Heaven_

 _Everything is fine_

 _In Heaven_

 _Everything is fine_

 _In Heaven_

 _Everything is fine_

 _You got your good things_

 _And I've got mine._ "

 _The song that she had sung was accompanied by the largest pipe organ he had even seen and 88 Keyes was playing it on the far left of her. It echoed all across the vast black emptiness. Slowly, but surely, the black background transcended into the stage of Club Ritz and when the sounds of applause and whistles came into his ears, Hiro looked back over his right shoulder and saw nothing but a black empty space, out of it stepped Tadashi, wearing the black suit and necktie that he had been buried in. He walked gradually toward Breathless, who had her hands clasped to her breasts. He seemed nervous, but a smile was appearing on her face as they stared at each other for what seemed like the longest time. Then, Breathless began curl her fingers out to him and out from her palms produced a white rose that was as cold as winter. Hiro watched with a heavy breath. He could tell that Tadashi was smiling at her the same way he smiled at him…and just when they were about to kiss, everything went white._

The bright morning of the sunlight greeted Hiro in a friendly way compared to his as he looked left and right for his brother. But when his eyes turned to the left, all he could see was Sora, sleeping softly in his swivel chair. Thinking that his flu had gone away, he tried to lift his upper body up, supporting himself, but his elbows began to weaken and he fell back to his pillow in defeat. He had very little time to cry, for at that moment, Aunt Cass was coming up the stairs.

"Rise and shine!" she sang. "I made tofu sandwiches!"

But when she saw Hiro lying there, sweat dripping down his face, her heart sank. His face also looked like it had been drained of energy by some negative vortex.

"Morning," he cringed as his body struggled to get up.

Sora, knowing better than to take refuge in Tadashi's preserved bed, slept in his own sleeping blanket of ocean blue next to Baymax's red while Donald and Goofy took the couch.

Speaking of Baymax, he rose out from his luggage and took six steps towards the bed.

"He is obviously sick," Baymax announced.

Aunt Cass' fears grew to a nervous level.

"We should take you to a doctor."

Sora, who had fully awoken by then, opposed this.

"Won't need to. We've already got Baymax."

"I know," Cass shrugged. "But I want a human doctor. They'll be able to understand some of the things that Baymax can't."

After three minutes of debate, Cass officially settled on her doctor, Sheila Walters, who was thin, Caucasian, had ginger hair, pink glasses over her limeade green eyes, the typical non-photo blue uniform of a doctor and some plastic white gloves. It was she who helped Tadashi with some materials that she needed to construct Baymax's medical system and when she found out about Baymax, coupled with the news of his murder, she was in tears. Like so many others, she was not very fond of robots performing human jobs, out of fear that they could be taken away within the next century, maybe even in the new millennium.

The first thing she had done when Sora and Aunt Cass brought Hiro to her office, was checking his forehead for warm temperatures. In her right hand, she held a tall nine inch scanner, retracting it after nine seconds to give the diagnosis.

"Wow, you have a moderate fever of—"

Baymax filled in the number for her.

"101 degrees."

Shelia eyed the nurse bot doubtfully.

"I know, I can see it on your screen as well."

The number "101" was there in dark blue, giving Sheila a good look from her vantage point.

Baymax then added ".29".

Resuming a friendly smirk, Sheila picked up the otoscope in her right hand.

"Let's take a look at your ears."

She placed the tip into Hiro's left ear.

"Just what I suspected."

"Fluids," finished Baymax by putting his right index finger into Hiro's right ear. "In the auditory canal indicating a possible viral infection."

Sheila just beamed nervously.

"Typically, the patient receives a second opinion after the diagnosis."

Then her face went into a seriously nasty scowl.

"Not, during."

Sora aimed his eyes over to Baymax, and mentally approved.

"I agree," was what he said out loud. "I'll just get him out of the way for you."

And he hauled Baymax by wrapping his arms around the left arm and out the door into the hallway. Aunt Cass took his place.

"Sorry, doctor. But my late nephew made him to treat sick people. It's his thing."

"I know," Sheila said sternly. "As for your youngest, he needs to stay in bed for a least two weeks, give or take a day."

Hiro's eyelids drooped lower by a millimeter and he literally avoided Sheila's gaze.

"What if I don't want to?"

"It's common advice, young man."

The tone of her voice was stern before rotating to sweet.

"Just go home, drink some soup, get half-a-day's worth of sleep and you'll be better soon."

She walked up to the counter and her right hand opened a jar of sweet, producing a cherry flavored lollipop between her index and thumb.

"I suppose you're not too old for sweets, aren't you?"

Hiro weekly took the red lollipop into his right hand and gave it a lick. Tadashi must have definitely gotten some inspiration from Sheila, for the flavor was exactly the same as the one Baymax had given him almost last year.

Returning home, Sora and Cass tucked Hiro into a bed and went downstairs to help their customers, leaving Baymax to keep a strong vigil. Hiro slept for nearly eighteen minutes before his restless body could not take it anymore and his left hand was searching under the bed on that side for his laptop. Maybe getting some dirt on the Mad Jacks via his friends on Skype would make him feel better.

"So what did you find out, Fred?" he was asking to the man-child in question.

"The Mad Jacks are a variation of the Bonsai Bombers; an elite team who specialize in shadow ops."

Fred's screen was almost completely obstructed by the blue and white ying-yang cup of Japanese tea that was being held in Baymax's right hand.

"I have prepared the tea for you, Hiro."

Hiro's sickly eyes gave a disdainful look at the steam emitting from the cup. At a temperature like that, he would probably die from the heat. The back of his left wrist pushed it away as he said.

"No thank you, Baymax, I'm not thirsty."

Baymax was ever insistent.

"A patient with viral infections should drink plenty of liquids."

Hiro relaxed his resistance. He took the warm cup in his right hand, confirming.

"Fine, I'll drink it later."

Honey and Go-Go, whose shared screen was on the bottom left of Fred's, could not help but wonder…

"Where's Wasabi."

The screen of Wasabi came on top of them. He was wiping his new laptop with a white napkin in his right hand while the left held a spray bottle.

"One more pass with the sanitizer…"

His eyes looked up to the camera apologetically.

"Sorry I'm late. I had to clean up whatever things I do not want to know that Hiro left behind."

Hiro himself greeted the burly afro with a weak smile.

"Hello, Wasabi."

But when he saw Baymax carefully stretching his pillow, the mood seemed to take a dark turn in Wasabi's favor.

"Hiro, a patient with a viral infection should rest."

And hearing those words made Wasabi's face turn white, albeit internally.

"A VIRAL INFECTION?! I HOPE YOU GET WELL SOON HIRO BECAUSE THIS WAS A BRAND-NEW COMPUTER!"

Then his right hand closed the top of the laptop down, casting the screen into darkness. The screen then disappeared, enlarging Fred and the girls.

"Okay," Fred began. "As I was saying, the Mad Jacks deal in shadow operations. Not only do they have their own website, but they also have a theme song."

The website imitated with Gunsmith taking center stage as he flew over a night sky, grinning madly. This was followed by a cinematic montage of the trio in action. They jumped from their aerial headquarters from a round bottom hatch, flew threw the air side by side, fired off their guns, shot off rockets from bazookas, some martial kicks and throws with some punches and exploding bombs added in against their own enemies. Gunsmith took center stage with his spiel.

"You got a mission? Don't sweat it! We'll crank it up to jaximum overdrive!"

The team took their poses after the camera zoomed out to a full body shot with all three crying out the catchphrase:

"Jack Attack!"

An explosion filled the screen, followed by lightning and a Jack of Clubs playing card with Gunsmith filling the illustration. Such details made Honey Lemon feel uneasy, while Go-Go was just peeved.

" _Joh-eun sin_ , sounds like they've seen one too many campy action movies."

At the police station, Detective Tracy soon got wind of the Mad Jacks via Honey, who also told him about Hiro's condition.

"Anybody who knows that the Mad Jacks deal in illegal operations makes it a wonder why nobody, not even me, has incarcerated them for doing so," he was saying to Honey on the phone. "But their reputation prevents anyone from getting suspicious. Sure they have done some good in the past, but every person has their bad side. As for Hiro, keep reminding him to stay in bed. He'll need it."

He hung up and went out on patrol, requesting an APB on the Jacks to Chief Patton. As they searched, Alistair Krei was in his office with Alicia, listening to the Mad Jacks' rock and roll theme song.

"Catchy, don't you think?" he asked her after the song drew to a close.

Alicia couldn't care less. She was holding her silver tablet, looking over the budget of the operation.

"Did you know it cost us a small fortune to pay these Rocketeer wannabies? They think your chip is worth more than you."

Alistair, holding said chip in his right hand, placed his left index finger on the table to prove provocative point.

"I've bested every black market bid for this dammed chip. It is the cutting edge, the future, the absolute peak of perfection."

"And what is it you're looking for?"

"Possibly top secret information on my rivals. Then I can get my hands on their ideals first before they do. All I have to is have my security team analyze and then—!"

And then, he heard the sound of Brute plastering himself against the unbreakable window. Alicia knew that given the turn of recent events, Krei had upgraded the windows…but when it came to other areas…

"Did you upgrade the floor as well?"

The sounds of the floor being pounded grew louder and an impending rate and exploded into fragments of grey and black. Alicia covered her eyes from any shrapnel that could potentially blind her as Gunsmith flew out from the hole and latched his arms around Krei, bringing themselves down to the ground through the hole. Alicia called Tracy, who then alerted the Crimestoppers.

* * *

Meanwhile, back in his room, poor, sick, little Hiro was blowing his nose into a hankie held in his right hand, the eighteenth one that he had today. A trash can containing the already used ones was just next to his bed on the left-hand side, so he dropped it in there. If there was one thing he had "contracted" from his brother (so to speak), it was his inability to give up even if it costs you your own life, so he kept his laptop open on the dresser. On the laptop was the homepage of the San Fransokyo Police Department, it's dispatch radio on and emitting from the speakers.

Hiro had just about buried his face into the pillow when a woman's voice spoke from the laptop.

"All units, Detective Tracy has confirmed a disturbance at Krei Tech, believes it to be the Mad Jacks."

Hearing their name made Hiro feel better, he lifted his upper body, remembered Baymax "sleeping" in his luggage by the plug before the bed and knew at once that would be need some alternative move of transportation.

Creeping down past Sora, sleeping on the couch, as well as Aunt Cass' bedroom, Hiro went to the garage to find his armor waiting there for him in the silver wardrobe and took out the gloves, helmet, etc. After he was fully dressed, he opened the garage door and turned around five times for any sign of transportation of getting to Krei Tech faster…

…and there it was, the red Piaggio Vespa driven by Tadashi, which he had famously used to get him out of his last bot fight, the moped that had taken him to SFIT, the moped that was now his, since Tadashi did not leave a will, which would properly authorize Hiro being liable to drive it.

Hiro took one look at the moped and clasped his hands together as he looked up to the sky and prayed in Japanese.

" _Onii-chan, watashi o yurushite_."

In no time at all, he was zooming down Masonic Avenue, slowing down whenever his fever tried to get the upper hand of his speed. But in short time, the avenue of silence would soon turn into an avenue of attack, for Brute, whose eyesight was qualifying sharp, swooped down from behind and lifted Hiro by his arm pits. The Vespa on the other hand, skidded left and right before lying on its left side on the sidewalk. Pedestrians got out of the way just in time for it to halt with spinning wheels rotating vertically.

Brute turned to face Hiro.

"Shouldn't you be asleep in bed, midget?"

Hiro looked more ill than tired.

"A true hero never rests until his duty is finished."

Then came the voice of Gunsmith on the intercom.

"Brute, status report. You got a 20 on the bot?"

"Negative, but I found the kid."

Hiro mustered a smile.

"And you're in for a surprise."

But the fib did not fool the muscle.

"Kid's bluffing, the bot is nowhere to be."

They flew over an alleyway, where a green dumpster provided Brute with the only fitting means of defeating Hiro. Letting Hiro go, he soared off while the boy fell to safety, back first above the rubbish contents of the dumpster, his arms were up, his right leg safely reached the interior, his left leg was directly above the edge…

…and that was when he felt a pain in the back of his left foot.

" _OW! Iesu, Maria, soshite yosefu!_ "

After lifting himself free from the dumpster, he limped all the way to where he found Tadashi's Vespa lying on its left side and sadly pulled it home by his right hand, ignoring the stares of by passers who took photographs of him.

"Hey, look it's the leader of Big Hero 6!" said a young man of twenty.

Hiro hoped that Aunt Cass would not see any of these photos online when he got home.

After parking the Vespa, slowly limping his way upstairs and glancing at Tadashi's smiling photograph in shame and dishonor, Hiro found Baymax, somehow standing there in front of his bed.

"I will scan you now."

* * *

Aunt Cass did not know about Hiro's injury until she and Sora were informed by Baymax the next morning, who simply told them that Hiro's left foot had been injured from behind. Sora soon got the truth out of Hiro himself and he gave the Keyblader a sincere apology. Without further questioning, Aunt Cass rushed Hiro right over to Sheila's office despite Sora's objections, preferring to have Baymax look over him. Once they were there, Hiro, his left foot exposed to all, was given an x-ray scan, allowing Shiela to point out the injury as he sat in the chair flanked by Aunt Cass on his right and Sora on the left.

"Looks like you got a hairline fracture of the tibia."

"Just fucking great," muttered Hiro under his breath.

With fists on her hips, Aunt Cass questioned Hiro.

"What exactly happened?"

Hiro's mind was so hazy, that he tried his best not to make it sound like an illogical lie. Unfortunately, his brain seemed to deflate, losing a majority of cells in the process.

"It was…a…video gaming accident."

Sora shook his head twice and gave Hiro's right cheek a light slap, reminding him of Tadashi even more whenever his excuses sounded out of whack.

"Come on, Hiro, I thought you were smarter than that."

Then he turned his head up to Aunt Cass and explained for him.

"He fell down the stairs trying to get a drink."

But Aunt Cass seemed more concerned about the "video gaming accident".

"Is that a thing?"

"We usually do not get a lot of these 'video gaming accidents'," Shelia held the notepad in her left hand and wrote down the details. "As for falling downstairs, that's very common amongst households."

Aunt Cass went back to Hiro, her tone stricter than usual.

"Whether it was a video game that you should not play anymore or falling downstairs, you need to stay in bed."

Then she turned her head to the left, despondent as if she already knew his secret.

"You are so much like Tadashi."

Hearing those words made Hiro wonder what if his brother would do if he was in his shoes.

* * *

When Hiro was back in his own bed, the first words he heard from Go-Go as Sora brought the rest of the team over was…

"You are so much like Tadashi."

"I agree," contemplated Fred as he sat in the black swivel chair. "Going off without me to play the hero despite your condition _and_ the consequences…That is exactly what Tadashi would do in my mind."

"Except he stayed in bed like any normal person would," explained Wasabi. "Although he did tell me one time that he actually came to school sick and insisted on staying. Even Professor Callaghan tried to convince him."

"Did it work?" asked Sora out of the blue.

"No. He actually let him stay as long he didn't get his germs on any of us."

Honey's attention was fixated on the bandage covering a large majority of Hiro's left foot, drawing bright lemons with various chibi smiles.

"At least a smile helps when you're feeling under the weather."

Hiro appreciated how semi-photorealistic the lemons appeared to be, almost seeming as if Honey had taken a previous interest in art before finding her true calling of chemistry and substances of acid and smoke. Then he knew it was time to face the music.

"I was just trying to stop Krei from being kidnapped by Mad Jacks. It's not like I was trying to be Tadashi in that situation."

Go-Go lowered herself to Hiro's eye level with her usual scowl.

"And just like Tadashi you just _had_ to prove yourself right.."

Hiro effeminately placed his right hand over his heart. He felt his condition growing worse.

"I _was_ right!"

"What you should be right about is keeping your leg elevated," interjected Baymax as he adjusted the white pillow under the equally colored cast. "It will help your injuries to heal more quickly."

Sora added his own opinion.

"Not to mention you have to stay in bed for real this time so that you don't break any more bones…or worse."

His eyes darted to the back of his head as he said this, trying hard for all the milliseconds he had thought of to not think about the fatal consequences. Then his focus returned to Hiro and he gave the prodigy a warm smile that reminded him of his brother.

"Which is why you should let me, Keyblade Hero 3, take center stage for a change. Donald can easily knock those guys out of the sky with a little bit of thunder!"

At that precise moment, Hiro knew that Sora deserved more credit than himself. Even if he had saved the universe at least three times, Sora was a legend compared to Hiro and Tadashi combined. Perhaps, he would not have to hide his identity if anyone were to ask about his backstory. Honey added her own sympathies.

"Just stay in bed, rest up and you'll feel better in a couple of weeks."

A couple of weeks was all Hiro needed, to bemoan his lack of involvement. As the team, flanked by Sora, left the room, Baymax placed his hands on both sides of the pillow and puffed it twice.

"Persistence is part of my healthcare matrix."

"At least you don't have to go with them, Baymax. I'm having one of those thoughts where both Tadashi and I mentally agree that you have to do what you built for."

"That is correct," Baymax nodded. "But my additional purpose of superhero duties allow me to expand my role in life."

And he continued sharing his thoughts after serving another cup of tea to Hiro.

Alistair Krei, having been blindfolded on his way to the Mad Jack's hideout, woke up in a room of small, square proportions. The door was thankfully unlocked, so he let himself out after trying the handle and he went down the red round hallway to see a fitness room where Whiplash was lifting a twenty-five-ton weight with both hands, her back turned against him. On tiptoe, he passed by another alcove, presenting the other side of the room where the two males were adjusting the LED light fixture. Brute, using his strength, held the fixture while Gunsmith adjusted the ends with his screwdriver.

His eyes kept a close watch on them before he turned counterclockwise to the door, hopefully a good means of escaping. Yet when he rushed over, pressing the grey button on the right with his hand on that side, a strong suction of wind blew from the interior to the exterior. It lasted for three seconds before he looked out to see the blue sky of clouds filling his perspective. Krei, knowing better than to walk out of a mobile base powered by three red propellers on the left, right and bottom, quickly shut the door, hoping that the events of the last minute would prevent the trio from noticing…

…but unfortunately, it did.

When Gunsmith walked up from Krei's rear, he drew a mad grin while his cohorts in crime and espionage crossed their arms with irked frowns.

"Trying to leave so soon?" the leader cracked while clapping his hands twice.

Krei gave the madman a little white lie.

"I was just wondering why we were out in the air?"

Brute, scowling from his left, drew his face against Krei's personal boundary.

"It helps if you work internationally."

Whiplash did the same.

"And by international, he means we have multiple employers. And one of them wants your chip."

Pushed in front of their leader by the two, Krei kept a stiff upper lip at Gunsmith's slow and dramatic stage whisper.

"I'd hand it over if I were you."

There was other choice. Krei's clone was not about to share the same fate as his original host: death at the hands of his relentless enemies, so his right hand reached into his left vest pocket and he produced the chip.

"Here it is. But I would love to know who your employer is."

Satisfied and complacent with the way things were going his way, Gunsmith's right hand took the chip and his face drew a wicked smirk at Krei's polar opposite dismay.

"Not a chance. The Mad Jacks are discreet."

The victory party that followed after was less than lively, with Whiplash and Brute clapping each other with all the hand greetings in the book. Krei was having none of it as Gunsmith studied the simplistic details of the chip. Blue clashing with red and black was the one thing that brought the atmosphere to a more peaceful environment in the form of color language.

Outside the Union Iron Works at 6:30 that night, Texie, her nephew and Ribs stood face to face before Flattop and Crewy Lou, both brandishing their signature weapons: the Thompson 1928 round drum always carried by Flattop while Crewy cradled the Winchester 1912 shotgun. Both criminals plastered on their best smiles as Texie approached them, a bright red shawl wrapped around her neck and covering a large majority of her upper body. She tsked thrice as she approached Flattop with the ruby red cigarette holder in her right hand, blowing a small, cloud-like puff.

"You kept me waiting Flattop. Didn't Black Pearl tell you about the details of my latest plan?"

"Sure," Flattop nodded. "It had something to do with signatures from rich folks."

"That was then, this is now. I have a lot of writing for this plan. The Mad Jacks are armed with advanced weaponry and gadgets, notably laser cannons, jetpacks and communicators that would provide useful for our own little undercover missions. With the boss Big Boy, currently incarcerated, we can be free to liberate ourselves from his own traditionalist rules and play things our way. In short, we have to hit them from afar with Big Hero 6's help, grab whatever is lying there without getting caught and send it over to a specialist who can make it feasible for our own purposes. But what I want most of all are the laser cannons. For a nice change from bullets, when can use the cannon technology to create ray guns to make the crime scenes less messy. Tracy and the Crimestoppers will be baffled before it will take them years to figure it out. Isn't that right, Ed?"

She rotated her eyes over to Ed, who smiled innocently in agreement.

"Yup. Those laser guns will bring us into the future, intergalactic styled…like Flash Gordon, though we haven't heard much about him lately."

Crewy walked up to Flattop's right flank.

"We'll take it…as long as we be the first people in the Apparatus to use these laser guns."

"I am positive you will be," smiled Texie as she curled her gloved fingers to her palms.

She felt her cell phone vibrating in her purse. Opening it and hitting the green button with her right thumb, Texie held the phone to her right ear, asking.

"Hello?"

Spaldoni's voice came from the phone

"One of the girls in Big Hero 6 just informed the others via Krei that the Mad Jacks were last seen somewhere around the Bay."

 _What a small city we live in._ Texie grinned evilly.

She hung the phone and instructed.

"You know what to do."

Flattop and Crewy walked in the opposite direction before Texie's voice stopped them.

"And Flattop?"

He turned counter-clockwise to the sound of her voice.

"Break a leg."

High above them in the sky, the Mad Jacks were nose-diving down to the street level. Gunsmith's voice screamed over the roar of the engines.

"ON MY SIGNAL, WE GO SILENT!"

He brought his right index finger to his lips and at the second they touched, the jet engines were turned off.

In his room, Hiro watched the search operation from his laptop, enviously wishing her could be there. On the screen a was a map showing the financial and harbor districts and each member of the team had their own tracker matching the color of their suits: green for Wasabi, pink for Honey, yellow for Go-Go, red for Baymax and blue for Fred. Sora, Donald and Goofy had their icon resembling the Gummi Ship, which they were flying from and Tracy's was his unmarked car leaving behind a bright yellow trail.

 _How hard can it be to find three people on jetpacks?_ Hiro wondered as the trails grew longer.

He did not even go as far as dressing himself up, not even in his helmet just in case Aunt Cass showed up with a sweet tone the first moment, and in the second moment she would be grounding Hiro for breaking their promise. His mind conflicted between right and wrong and whether or not he should be out there helping them or staying in bed like a good patient, but he was smug and confident that Sora would do his job perfectly and the back of his head fell onto the pillow, waiting for exciting news.

Some four-square feet away from the Iron Works, the whistling of the wind blew in the ears of Gunsmith, Whiplash and Brute, their eyes aiming towards the ground with sharp, piercing glares. The approach of victory was as fast as the moment they reached the ground. From the top of the building behind them, Flattop and Crewy crouched on all fours, her Winchester acting as an impromptu sniper rifle. Above them, they could see the trio activating their parachutes.

"Should I shoot them?" Crewy asked.

"Not yet," Flattop answered. "Wait until they've dispersed of their jetpacks, then we'll steal them."

"And the chances of that being…?"

"Pretty positive."

On the roof of the el train in the financial district, Fred was standing ground on the fifth car.

"No sign of them," he answered to his teammates. "But I know the Jacks are making their move somewhere."

And they were back on the roof, Flattop and Crewy watched the trio making their way to a turquoise green skylight on crouched legs. It was Gunsmith himself who shot off a laser beam in his right gauntlet, walking slowly around the skylight's base, leaving a perfect trail of melted magma as he went. After completing the cut, it took both of Gunsmith's hands to lift the skylight off of its foundations and he placed the glass on the left side before jumping in, leaving his comrades to guard the open skylight...much to the dismay of Flattop and Crewy, naturally.

Inside was the light of the moon illumining the surroundings. Gunsmith was brave and fearless for the next fifteen seconds of silence until he heard a cheerful, yet underwhelmingly wicked…

"Hello!"

Gunsmith tried not scream, but he could not express his fear that he had been caught red handed. So he turned counterclockwise and saw, on the catwalk twenty feet above him, the dark figure standing just before the glowing nun in white: Obake and Sister Esclarmonde.

"Have you come bearing Alistair Krei's chip?"

"Hell yeah!" jousted Gunsmith as his right hand took out the chip from his left fist pocket. "Cause the Mad Jacks guarantee success!"

The duo of light and shadow elevated themselves down to the ground floor on a chain a hook, the man receiving the chip in his right hand once the duo's feet touched the floor. As soon as Obake took the chip into that hand, he looked at the green wrist watch located on the hand of that same side and it projected a holographic map showing six legend icons approaching each other. One was a pink triangle to the left of a green square, one was a black unmarked car, two were blue and red hexagons, one was a yellow wheel and another looked like a Gummi Ship. Sister Esclarmonde's senses reacted faster than Obake's.

"It seems we have intruders invading our private property. Big Hero 6 and the Shadow are on the move."

He eyes turned to Gunsmith.

"You must deal with them."

"What about our strategy?" Gunsmith inquired. "We occupy the enemy, you escape and it's mission accomplish for all of us."

Obake shut off the watch.

"Superb," he smiled.

Then he frowned.

"Although…the security of the package is paramount."

Gunsmith understood this.

"Which means I will keep the package until the enemy is neutralized."

Obake then placed the chip back into Gunsmith's right hand, smug and determined and as he watched Gunsmith's departure by jetpack through the skylight, he and the Light already knew that their contingency plan was being executed in the most plausible outcome.

Noticing the jetpack's boosters roaring to life, leaving trails of black smoke, Crewy quickly fired the Winchester. The bullet flew as fast as it could go, spinning a drill on it's tip sharp enough to penetrate through human skin, but the only thing it was currently penetrating through until it fell to earth was thin air, a poor shot that the Jacks didn't hear thankfully over the roar of their jetpacks, but a sudden downwards turn to the street level was fast enough for the bullet to miss its target: the jetpack worn by Gunsmith.

Flattop, relieved that they weren't spotted, looked at Crewy with disapproving eyes. She provided an explanation before he could inquire.

"I was simply aiming for one of the jetpacks. I could have easily jumped him and took it before he tried to run off."

"Well, anyway," Flattop kept a calm tone. "We'd better follow them. If one of 'em drops anything, take it and drive back to the Ritz."

"What about you?"

"I'll come with you…once we get what Texie wants."

Meanwhile, the Jacks were soaring in opposing directions over the financial district, Gunsmith ordering.

"Keep an eye out for hostiles!"

"How many?" asked Whiplash from the other line.

"With a mantra like Big Hero 6, I'd say six."

"Roger that, perimeter sweep in progress."

The conversation was overheard by Sora, Donald and Goofy in the Gummi Ship, its radio frequencies picking up the heat signatures of their locations. Sora, needing some form of preparation to deliver a hard strike onto the team's weaknesses, contacted Hiro via the radio.

"Any hints on where we should hit them where it hurts?"

"I do know that their leader Gunsmith's name is Greg, maybe addressing him as Greg could piss him off."

"I might think about it."

Truth be told, Sora was not sure if such a thing would work, but given the proud and vain reputation of the flying renegades, metaphorically burning their own ego seemed like an excellent plan. He immediately gave locations of the heat signatures to Tracy and the team. Even the Shadow was using his own powers to sniff them out.

Whiplash was flying between two warehouses when she felt a heavy weight on her back. Her first assumption was the jetpack running out of juice before she looked behind her over her right shoulder to see Fredzilla asking innocently:

"Piggyback ride?"

His weight, along with his own strength, pushed Whiplash's altitude by five feet above the wooden boards of ground. Through the alleyway nearby, Brute saw that she was in trouble and flew at maximum speed to the rescue. He came onto Whiplash's right, his left hand aimed at Fred, intent on firing a laser shot set to kill, but a yellow disk broke his nose and the bridge of his visor. Immediately, he was sprawling backwards to the ground, landing face first in a pile of discarded boxes from the online shipping storage. Flattop and Crewy seemed to notice this, and when they had seen he was out cold after inspecting him, they took the jetpack and his bazooka, rushing back to the car.

With Whiplash struggling to get Fred off of her, Go-Go's attention turned from the defeated Brute and onwards to the female agent, and by the time Flattop and Crewy stripped Brute of his arsenal, she was already out of their sight. She raced forward, following the two to wherever their current struggle would land them in and within three seconds, she could them spinning counterclockwise along with Fred's claws holding onto the wings.

"YOU'RE GONNA MAKE ME HURL!" he screamed while trying not to let go.

Honey and Wasabi, who were in the back seat of Tracy's Crown Victoria with Tracy himself driving the car, stopped at the warehouse whose coordinates were delivered by Sora and jumped at the sight of Fred and Whiplash landing ten inches away from smashing the windshield. Her entire being rolled four times on the pavement before she lay unconscious on her back, while his body had dented the engine trunk, but Tracy didn't mind. With his own salary from the mayor granted for helping Big Hero 6, he could easily have it repaired in no less than two days.

"Not to worry, Freddy!" shouted Honey as she rushed over to him. "We're here to help!"

Tracy got out of the car and walked over to the rear trunk to retrieve his Chicago typewriter.

"Good thing you rode with me instead of taxi," he said to his passengers. "It would have caused some suspicion."

" _Thank heaven for that,_ " muttered Wasabi in Swahili while crossing himself.

It was at that moment when Baymax landed fifteen feet before the car. He pointed his right index finger into the air and give his witnesses the usual pacifistic advice.

"It would be preferable to resolve this conflict with other methods besides violence…"

This seemed to have caught Gunsmith's attention, for he was firing his atomic bazooka thrice on the robot's rear.

"To hell with that! Violence is cool! It's a major part of the Mad Jacks' mantra!"

Before he could finish Baymax off with a lethal blast that would have him down for the count, the Gummi Ship rushed into the fray and pretty soon, Gunsmith's front was plastered against the windshield dome. The bazooka's top struck the right wing before it fell, already damaged, spinning wildly onto the pavement.

Already beaten, Gunsmith had willingly let himself slide off the windshield as Donald was opening it up and he fell into the cockpit on his chin. After rubbing it with his right hand, he looked up to Sora's open right hand, extended all the way out and demanding with a vocal tone to match the appropriate gesture.

"Chip please?"

Sighing, Gunsmith opened the compartment of his right gauntlet and placed the chip into Sora's palm, who closed it and expressed his attitude with that of Hiro, and his advice.

"Thanks, Greg."

Gunsmith crossed his arms, and tried not to sound too angry.

"You sick son of a bitch."

They brought Gunsmith down to the ground, and Tracy whisked him into the backseat of the Crown Victoria, handcuffed with his hands in front of him. While he called Chief Patton to send backup for the two remaining members on his wrist radio, Sora called Hiro on his own phone.

"Guess what, Hiro…we caught the Mad Jacks!"

Hearing this on the other line made Hiro feel proud and safe. His team had successfully managed without his help, but it was still likely that he always needed to be there for them as such leaders are meant to do. With Sora serving his role as the right substitute for Tadashi, the team had also found their friend's spirit within the Keyblader whose career as such had lasted longer than their own. Then he asked out of the blue.

"Will you return the chip to Krei?"

"Don't worry, we will. And when we get back, I expect to see you resting."

Sora looked about for the Shadow who had arrived late to help them while Hiro felt something else, he was healing. The fever was slowly starting to disappear and his foot was regaining it's strength.

"You know, I'm starting to feel better already."

Turning off the phone, Hiro finally went to sleep and began to dream…a sweet dream that was loving and warmed his heart to a palpable degree.

 _This dream seemed to be in the past and from a distance, the colors that Hiro could see were dark and browned. Up close, however, the colors were full. His eyes were looking up at the ceiling and his head was still moaning in pain. Perhaps he had spoken too soon._

 _But then there came from the sound of footsteps climbing up the stairs, a shadow on the wall that he knew all too well; thin, tall, short hair and a perfect body structure._

 _Tadashi carrying a red tray of warm miso soup in a black bowl._

 _It was all too much of a memory, a memory that Hiro had when he was sick, three years ago._

 _Setting the tray on the bed, steading it to keep it from being disrupted due to Hiro's motions, Tadashi asked._

" _So, how is our little patient today?"_

 _Hiro moaned._

" _Not so good."_

 _Tadashi sat beside him, his smile bringing one to Hiro's lips._

" _Well, as a wise man once said, 'Rest and relaxation is the perfect cure to almost any ailness.'"_

" _Who said that?"_

" _Dad did. A year before you were born, I was just about as sick as you and he gave me this brand of soup to help me feel better."_

 _Between his memory and his current state, Hiro was almost starting to regret his actions. He rolled his eyes in a daze and brought his focus back to Tadashi's. The older brother placed his right hand on his younger brother's left hand and added._

" _I wish I could stay with you all day, but the school needs me."_

 _Tadashi quickly kissed Hiro's forehead, turned counterclockwise and made his way to the staircase when Hiro's voice stopped him in his tracks._

" _Tadashi…"_

 _He could see Hiro's right hand reaching out to him, his current self afraid of losing him again._

" _Don't ever leave me…"_

 _Tadashi gave Hiro a sad smile of acknowledgement, knowing where his heart belonged and finally gave his answer._

" _Hiro, I will always be with you. Even if you can't see me or hear my voice…so why don't you go to sleep. I'll be back before you know it."_

 _Then he left downstairs and Hiro did as he was instructed to do._

Although Tadashi had never really promised Hiro that he would return from the hell on earth that had altered the course of his brother's life forever, it was the memory in the dream that reminded Hiro that no matter what would happen, they would always be together, no matter the distance.

Back at the club, as Texie looked over the latest signatures, Flattop and Crewy excused themselves through the last departing patron and she looked up to see them, asking.

"Got my ray gun ingredients?"

Flattop placed the jetpack and bazooka on the table before speaking.

"I'd also like to mention that while we were following the Mad Jacks, we heard their leader speaking to someone inside the warehouse from the glass roof."

"Their employer?"

"Quite possibly, I couldn't make out what he said given they were on the ground, but he appeared to be accompanied by a ghost-lookin' figure all dressed in white. She was fuckin' glowin'."

Texie turned her eyes away from Flattop and her mind tried to process all of this at once.

"Looks like we might have more competition than we expected."

* * *

And her expectations were met in the form of Obake, who was in his lair telling Sister Esclarmonde:

"And the chip should be back where it belongs…right. Now."

At the same time, Alistair Krei was in his office, observing the chip placed between his left thumb and index.

"Now," he spoke dramatically. "The moment of truth."

Behind him on his left was Alicia, looking pessimistic over what would be the next fatal moves.

"In which you turn it over to the security team instead of doing something retarded."

Her words seemed to work like magic onto Alistair's head, for at that moment, he turned to face her, suspicious and strong-minded.

"Whoever hired the Mad Jacks must have infiltrated my security team!"

The epiphany of it all was loud and true, but it made Alicia feel uncomfortable.

"You mean like a bug? You're not usually this paranoid."

Turning his back to her, Krei made his final decision.

"I was abducted Alicia, paranoia is often an after-effect of that."

And hoping to prove himself wrong, he docked the chip into the desk computer, waited for ten seconds…

…and in Obake's lair, the scene was presenting itself on the main monitor.

"I am not taking any chances. We will be the only ones to see what is on this."

But instead of any top secret plans as he expected, he got a no symbol sign plastered over a folder with the dead black subtitles "NO FILES FOUND" under it. Krei, now faint and short of breath, thought he heard his own assistant mocking him.

"Well, looks like you went through a lot of trouble for nothing and does something for _a lot_ of people."

What they had not known, was that the chip was an advanced bugging device that was able to hack into the strongest of computers, including Krei Tech properties. With one swish of the pad, Obake and the Light now had access to a large bank worth of files, including blueprints, schematics, technical sketches, rejected designs among other personal files and access codes. Sister Esclarmonde could sense everything from the confines of her chamber behind Obake, including his discovery of Hiro Hamada's profile and two main photographs, he dressed in his suit of armor on the left and on the right, was his normal civilian attire. Both of their faces were anything but happy, but disappointed, which was what Hiro, and the rest of Big Hero 6, were going to be when their hearts would be attacked by who would soon become their greatest enemy yet.


End file.
